N - dub

WHAT THE PEOPLE THINK
By Neal Boortz @ March 5, 2009 8:28 AM Permalink | Comments (23) | TrackBacks (0)
According to a survey released yesterday by Quinnipiac University, to people who pay their mortgage on time. I guess this means that people who have been paying their mortgages on time and in accordance with their mortgage documents would like to see their payments reduced as well. Typical.

Sometimes I like to read the comments on stories around the Internet. Well I saw a couple from this story that I thought you would enjoy. Just listen to the reasoning of these people ... and remember, they can vote. That would explain why things are the way they are.

This one is from Barbara:

"This is the whole problem with our country, too many greedy people. It's all about "me, me, and me. What about us. We should all be willing to help each other. I am 62 yrs old, work 2 jobs, and barely make ends meet. I am running about 2 weeks behind on my mortgage and can't get caught up. I am charged around $30 extra for my lateness. I had surgery and had to go without pay for 2 weeks and this got me behind. I'm sure this plan won't help me. Let it help people that need it more. . I am not complaining like the rest of you. Having a home means everything to me. If this plan can help people stay in their homes or help them out with their mortgage so they can get caught up., I say "Praise God". Greedy people don't have a clue what it means to do without. Don't judge until you walk a mile in some one else's shoes. God will be pleased that we help each other. Some people have lost their jobs, does that mean they are "DEAD BEATS". Rethink that quote, you may be in the same situation some day."

It would seem that Barbara defines "greedy" as someone who has handled their finances responsibly. Par for the course.

And this one is from Gene /Connie Garvin:

"We should all appreciate what our President is doing for us. He is doing his best to save this country. There are fortunate people that can pay mortgages on time and a lot of people that can't. What is wrong if we help people that are in need. We are all Americans and should stand for each other. President Obama you are the best President and please continue on your mission for America. We appreciate everything you do for us."

So Gene and Connie have a different take. The people who handle their finances properly aren't necessarily "greedy." They're just lucky.

Now ... think we can find someone who will take the heat for the mismanagement of their own finances?

I, for one, won't waste too much time on that.

of US President Barack Obama making a peace sign has gone on sale in Indonesia, but worried consumer activists are already calling for it to be banned.
The "Obama" snack packet shows a grinning Obama making a peace sign with his right hand and spinning the globe like a basketball on the fingers of his left hand.

It also bears a peace symbol and the word "peace," along with a teaser suggesting that if you are lucky you might win a bonus.

The Indonesian Consumer Foundation has called on the government to investigate, saying the snack is defamatory to President Obama and potentially harmful to children's health.

"What's the aim of using such an image? It's defamation and the producer should be investigated," Foundation head Indah Suksmaningsih said.

Each 500-rupiah (four-cent) packet of "Obamas" contains a small plastic toy which is "unhygienic" and could be mistaken as food by infants, said foundation legal affairs officer Sularsi, who only uses one name.

"We urge the government to investigate the product, which might have a dubious permit," he said.

"Obamas" hit the streets recently in the West Java city of Bandung.

President Obama lived in the Indonesian capital Jakarta from 1967 to 1971 after his mother divorced his Kenyan father and married an Indonesian man.

This childhood connection -- and his pledge to break with the foreign policy of the Bush administration -- has made him hugely popular in the Southeast Asian country of some 234 million people.

Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium

Here is what you can ask Abrahamson about concerning appointed positions vs. elected judge positions.
 
In Iowa the system works with a judicial appointment commission, made up of lawyers that are elected from the Bar Association for terms of I believe 6 years. The commission advertises, interviews and then selects three finalists for each opening. The three finalists are then interviewed by the Governor who gets to choose from the panel of three. 
 
The system works very well, no one is handing money to judicial campaign committees and the general public sees it as un compromised. And we aren't raising $5million for a campaign. 
 
As her what she thinks of this system. Why wouldn't this work in Wisconsin?
 
In a message dated 2/25/2009 3:08:51 P.M. Central Standard Time, petef@sprynet.com writes:
The issue of elected or appointed has gone on for years, and if they are appointed there's always the feeling the governor or the commission is just appointing their buddies or doing a tit for tat deal of some sort. Most of the time when we have incumbents in office for most lower court judge positions no one runs against them, which isn't good either.

CLINTON: U.S. FIRM ON COMMITMENT TO TWO-STATE SOLUTION

The visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Israel this week may give an early indication of any disagreements on the Palestinian issue between the United States and the next Israeli government. In an interview on Friday with Voice of America, Clinton said she would emphasize her country's commitment to a two-state solution.

Clinton said the administration wanted to help Israel and the Palestinian Authority work toward a permanent agreement leading to an independent, sustainable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. She said the United States sought internal Palestinian reconciliation, but any national unity government would have to maintain the conditions of the Quartet: recognizing Israel, abiding by previous agreements and forsaking violence.

In Washington one of America's most recognizable and noted psychologists has been named Special Guest Commentator for the 2009 Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) Summit on the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. Noted clinical psychologist and Middle East analyst Dr. Judy Kuriansky, known nationally as Dr. Judy from her radio and TV shows, will be one of the distinguished experts at the Wednesday March 4, 2009 event at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, DC.

At this time of US envoy George Mitchell on his second Middle East tour, and in the midst of the pervasive crises in the region, it is important for the new administration as well as other politicians, advocates and the public, to know that there are people supporting cooperation between the two sides, says Dr. Judy. President Obama and the new administration need to acknowledge the voice of these groups, to support the role of the moderates -- as opposed to the extremists on both sides.

The Alliance for Middle East Peace is a coalition of over 60 leading non-governmental organizations working to foster coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. ALLMEP has proposed the establishment of an independent International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace to dramatically grow efforts to build peace on the ground. In addition, this Wednesday's Summit will mark the launch of a public campaign to establish the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. Inspired by the International Fund for Ireland, the $200 million-per-year Fund will dramatically increase grassroots peace-building efforts by funding joint economic development and civil society projects.

In her recent book, Beyond Bullets and Bombs: Grassroots Peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians, Kuriansky proves that there are a plethora of people in the Middle East region and around the world cooperating to dispel fear and mistrust, and to foster mutual understanding, cooperation, and coexistence despite a seemingly never-ending war. These people2people projects; known as Track II Diplomacy -- take many interesting and creative forms, in fields of education, counseling, and arts and entertainment. Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, young and old, male and female, scholars and students, are sailing, cooking, climbing mountains, camping, cleaning beaches, and of course, talking together for peace.

Their efforts are impressively noble and courageous, working against great odds like pervasive violence, fears of reprisal for cooperating with the enemy, insufficient funding and under-recognition, says Kuriansky. She further describes how youth are involved in impressive projects, like a summer camp where teens produce their own movies about the conflict, many based on Romeo-and Juliet themes with Palestinian and Israeli young lovers kept apart by the conflict.

Politicians and the public can learn a lot from these courageous civilians who keep coming up with new cooperative efforts and doing every conceivable collaboration in the name of peace between the two peoples, says Kuriansky.

Kuriansky's earlier volume, Terror in the Holy Land: Inside the anguish of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict includes profiles of female suicide bombers, impact of the separation wall, and ways of coping with the cycle of humiliation and revenge.

About your guest:

JUDY KURIANSKY, PhD is a world-renowned clinical psychologist on the adjunct faculty at Columbia University Teachers College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Visiting Professor at Peking University Health Sciences Center and Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Hong Kong. An expert in relationships and in disaster recovery, and United Nations NGO representative, she is a popular lecturer, radio advice host, TV commentator, advice columnist and best-selling author.

By Journal Times staff
Thursday, March 5, 2009 6:52 PM CST

RACINE — For four days next month, county agencies will allow people with unpaid child support or other kinds of outstanding fines to avoid arrest if they make payment arrangements.

A committee involving representatives from local law enforcement and other government agencies came up with the idea for the amnesty program. Agencies are hoping to recoup some of the more than $1 million that remains unpaid, said Racine County Clerk of Circuit Court Rose Lee, who is coordinating the event.

This includes things like child support obligations, traffic tickets or fines related to misdemeanor convictions, Lee said. The county does not plan to arrest people who step forward.

“We’re willing to work with people,” she said. “It doesn’t do us any good to put them in jail when they can’t work.”

The amnesty program is scheduled from 8 a.m. to noon April 6-9 in the traffic court hearing room on the main level of the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, 717 Wisconsin Ave. The county’s goal is to get those who owe money to arrange a payment schedule, but Lee said people will need to pay something toward their fines on the day of the visit.

The county plans to release more information before the amnesty begins, to let people know whether they are eligible.

Racine County is also one of five counties that allow court fines to be paid online using a credit card or electronic check. In February alone, the county collected more than $8,000 through the new program, Lee said. The Wisconsin court system’s Web site is located at http://wcca.wicourts.gov

Suspect faces reckless homicide count; third man sought
BY MARK HORNICKEL
mhornickel@kenoshanews.com

A 20-year-old Racine man with an extensive criminal record has been identified as the person who threw the punch that caused the death of a Kenosha middle school teacher last month.

Kenosha police on Tuesday said a tip from two teenage girls who witnessed the attack was the key that helped detectives pin Martin L. Walker as Colin Byars’ alleged killer. The Police Department has requested a charge of first-degree reckless homicide and he could appear in court today.

“That statute says whoever causes the death of another human being under circumstances which show utter disregard are guilty of first-degree reckless homicide,” Kenosha Police Chief John Morrissey said. “We believe that is what Mr. Walker did by his actions, by punching Colin and leaving the scene.”

According to police, Byars, 24, was leaving Big Shotz, on the corner of 30th Avenue and Roosevelt Road, at about 2:20 a.m. Feb. 21, when he stood up to a group of three men who accosted some females in Byars’ group. Walker allegedly punched Byars, causing him to fall and hit his head on a concrete curb. He suffered a massive head injury, police said, and was pronounced dead at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa.

“This is nothing more than a senseless death,” Morrissey said at an afternoon news conference, flanked by Byars’ parents, Kenosha Mayor Keith Bosman and detectives who worked the case. “(Byars) was standing up for the girls there. It’s pathetic that Mr. Martin Walker felt that he needed to take a swing at Colin.”

Police identified the other men with Martin as Damon M. Rodriguez, 19, and Jeremy S. Powell, 18. Rodriguez, who had been wanted on a probation warrant, turned himself into Racine police on Tuesday. Powell also is wanted on a probation warrant and remains at large.

Police asked anyone with information on Powell’s whereabouts to call the department’s dispatch line at 656-1234. Police also warned he is considered armed and dangerous.

During the news conference, Byars’ parents, Paul Byars and Danelle Eckert, tearfully thanked investigators for their work and pleaded for residents to call police with more information that could help the case.

“My Colin was so sweet,” Eckert said, clutching a photo of her son. “If anybody else has any information, because there’s a lot of people out there that I know know something that can help this case. He wasn’t only just stolen from us, but he was stolen from the whole community.”

At this point, Kenosha police said they are only interested in interviewing the men about Byars’ death and do not plan to request charges for the other men.

However, the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department likely will request charges in coming days for the three men, stemming from crimes they allegedly committed after the attack on Byars.

According to police, the men fled to the city’s north side where they broke into multiple cars about three hours after confronting Byars. A half hour later, the men were involved in an armed robbery at a gas station in the 1900 block of 22nd Avenue.

But authorities already were working on the suspects’ trail. A Big Shotz bouncer gave police a license plate number for a vehicle registered to Walker’s girlfriend and investigators began interviewing several witnesses. They learned of the suspects’ affiliation with a street gang and a team of detectives with knowledge of gang crimes had Walker, who goes by the street name “Duke,” on their radar.

Within several hours of Byars’ death, authorities found Walker at his Racine County apartment and arrested him on a warrant. But detectives still needed to prove Walker’s involvement.

“We had in mind who the three individuals involved were,” Detective Mathew Hagen said. “We just didn’t know which one actually was the one that punched Mr. Byars.”

They got the break they needed days after Byars’ death, with the help of Willie Hamilton, a school resource officer at Lincoln Middle School. Under Hamilton’s guidance, two individuals who had seen the attack identified Walker as the man who threw the punch.

On Tuesday, Morrissey credited the detectives, Hamilton and a mother and aunt who brought the individuals to police for their help in solving the case.

“Those two are very important witnesses in this,” Morrissey said. “I need to give a lot of credit to the mother and the aunt that brought those two individuals forward and Officer Hamilton for having the relationship with the community that he does.”

Walker, a convicted felon, has a criminal record that includes convictions for resisting police, battery, possession of a dangerous weapon and two convictions for operating a car without owner’s consent. At the time of Byars’ death, Walker was out of jail on bond for marijuana possession and carrying a concealed weapon.

If convicted of first-degree reckless homicide, Walker faces up to 60 years in prison.

Comments:
There are 25 comments on this topic

Great work !!
Wonderful 03/04 at 01:27
See now...that didn't take all that long. They got him now. I knew they would be too dumb to run. Who would have helped them anyway? Thier posse of peeps? That's now 6 male blacks (currently) wanted or awaiting trial (starting at age 14) for armed robbery or homicide. Or am I missing a few? Simply pathetic. This Summer should be a hoot. Can't wait to see all the new faces coming here to get on the Hand-out programs WI advertises. Pretty soon us good folks (black, white, or Latino) are going to leave and Kenosha become what it already stinks of...a SLUM!

Good Riddance
Truth 03/04 at 04:33
Nice job KPD. removing more trash from the streets.Turns out this scum bag had quite a record. WOW there is a shocker.... Enjoy prison tool.

Where's The Justice?
Hugh Jarrod 03/04 at 05:43
A productive member of society is dead and the killer gets rewarded w/ free room and board for life.

Good Job KPD
long time resident 03/04 at 06:30
The Kenosha Police did an outstanding job in bringing these Racine hoodlems to justice quickly. Thank god that bouncer from Big Shotz got the plate number that led them to this guy and the girls came forward. The girls should be commended for their courage in reporting what they saw and the bouncer should be commended for thinking clearly on what to do in what must have been a frantic situation.

Good Work
mrsfuzz 03/04 at 07:07
Good work KPD

Press Conference At Museum
Taxpayer 03/04 at 07:29
They finally found a use for the Civil War Museum!

Taxpayer=Moron
azicebowl 03/04 at 08:58
Hey Taxpayer, please stick with the story at hand. This was a tragedy and also good work by the KPD and the citizens of Kenosha. This is NOT your soapbox to rant about anything else.

Act Now Mr. Alderman!
GrimReaper 03/04 at 07:41
Tragedy! Plain and simple. Two families are suffering a lost. This was a senseless act. Ever more so this hold thing could have been prevented. The biggest tragedy is Kenosha public image to world. Just the wrong kind of message selling our community to potential new home owners and businesses. The aldermen who want to expend their terms to four years need to take immediate action. This past summer same area another trouble youth was killed. Violence is growing daily in this area. I see no prevented measures taken by the alderman, our churches, our schools to prevent these tragedy’s from happening again and again. We must are stand accountable for this tragedy. More good young men will die in the streets of Kenosha, this year unless something is done NOW!!!

jl723 03/04 at 07:43
finally they arrested someone collin was a good man

Coming Together
Chicagoan also a Kenosheon 03/04 at 08:22
It is such a shame we lose people we love to such crimes. I have been here 16 yrs. and kenosha has changed so much there is good and bad. We as a community must stand up and say enough!! I moved from violent areas of Chicago to get serenity. Ignorance is unstabilizing that serenity!!! I refuse to see my city go down because of ignorant behavior! If anyone is afraid to out another person don't be because if you live in fear it is because of guys like these put it there! Don't let that enable you to come forward and speak! Do it for you, your family, your kids for your safe haven! The guy on the run come forward give yourself up! If its the last thing right you do!! God Bless Kenosha Citizens we must come together and say "ENOUGH"!!!

Justice will be served
03/04 at 08:22
Great Job KPD! Making sure all your ducks were lined up before making the arrest. And thank you girls for coming forward...it's besides the point but I'm curious why two Lincoln Middle School students were out after 2 a.m. to witness this. As bad that is, without them, this repeat felon could be out there commiting more crimes. One can only hope he will serve as close to all 60 years as possible. Now you can rest in peace Colin...the good people of Kenosha and God will take it from here.

Why wasn't he in jail?
03/04 at 08:32
After checking the court records, the alleged suspect was already on probation, was already a convicted felon, is currently going through court for another crime WHILE on probation......this is not someone that should have been walking the streets. He obviously has issues and is not going to be rehabilitated. So, now he may have to spend the majority of his life in prison, hopefully never to hurt someone again, but now there's a family hurting from the lost of a loved one, not to mention all the good he could have done as a teacher. Very sad. Our society needs to stop feeling sorry for people like the suspect and get them off the streets. Dept. of Corrections.....actually do your job, don't just do the time and sit behind your desk collecting a paycheck! Protect us from the REAL criminals!

Chief Morrisey Camera Guy
Tax Me More 03/04 at 08:48
If there is a press conference, you can count on Chief Morrisey to be center stage! It would have been better if he had actually caught the perpitrator!

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said policy makers may need to expand aid to the banking system beyond the $700 billion already approved and take other aggressive measures even at the cost of soaring fiscal deficits. 

“Without a reasonable degree of financial stability, a sustainable recovery will not occur,” the Fed chairman said today in testimony prepared for the Senate Budget Committee. “Although progress has been made on the financial front since last fall, more needs to be done.” 

Bernanke’s comments suggest he sees a role for bigger federal outlays as the Obama administration seeks congressional approval for a budget of $3.55 trillion for the fiscal year beginning in October. President Barack Obama has already signed into a law a $787 billion economic stimulus package of tax cuts and government spending. 

Obama’s first budget seeks standby authority for as much as $750 billion in new aid to the financial industry. Whether those funds will be needed “depends on the results of the current supervisory assessment of banks” and the evolution of the economy, Bernanke said. 

Bernanke said policy makers would have “preferred to avoid” what is likely to be the largest ratio of federal debt compared with gross domestic product since the end of World War II, and he urged lawmakers not to lose sight of fiscal discipline. 

Cost to Budget 

“But our economy and financial markets face extraordinary challenges,” and doing less now would eventually prove to be more costly, he said. “We are better off moving aggressively today to solve our economic problems; the alternative could be a prolonged episode of stagnation” that would cause budget deficits to swell further, increase unemployment and undermine incomes “for an extended period.” 

The Fed has more than doubled its assets to $1.9 trillion during the past year by expanding loans to banks, launching programs to revive commercial paper and other markets and backing the merger of Bear Stearns Cos. with JPMorgan Chase & Co. 

The 55-year-old Fed chairman told the Senate Banking Committee last week there’s a “reasonable prospect” the recession will end in 2009 “if the actions taken by the administration, the Congress and the Federal Reserve are successful in restoring some measures of financial stability.” 

Stock Slump 

Fed policy makers face headwinds from equity markets, with the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index falling this year by 22.5 percent and the S&P Financials Index tumbling 44.2 percent. 

The government is still trying to stabilize large financial institutions such as Citigroup Inc. and insurer American International Group Inc. Shares of Citigroup traded at $1.33 this morning at 9:33 a.m., and the government expanded its aid to AIG yesterday after the company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $61.7 billion, the worst loss by any U.S. corporation. 

The spending blueprint delivered to Congress last month forecasts government spending this year of $3.94 trillion, up 32 percent from a year ago. That would yield a record deficit of $1.75 trillion in the year ending Sept. 30, equal to about 12 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, the highest since World War II. Government spending of $3.55 trillion next year will include about $350 billion approved as part of the stimulus package. 

Stimulus Impact 

“By supporting public and private spending, the fiscal package should provide a boost to demand and production over the next two years as well as mitigate the overall loss of employment and income that would otherwise occur,” Bernanke said. 

Still, the size of the impact on the economy from government spending is “subject to considerable uncertainty,” Bernanke said. Consumers may decide to pay down debt or save their cash rather than spend it, he noted. 

January forecasts by Fed officials suggest “a full recovery of the economy from the current recession is likely to take more than two or three years,” Bernanke told lawmakers last week. 

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent in January, the highest level since 1992. Job losses spanned almost all industries from trucking and construction to retailing and finance. 

Fed officials expect unemployment in the fourth quarter to average 8.5 percent to 8.8 percent, which would be the highest since 1983, according to their January forecasts. Gross domestic product will contract 1.3 percent to 0.5 percent, and inflation will run at just 0.3 percent to 1 percent this year, their projections indicate. 

Fed Forecasts 

Fed officials don’t see labor markets improving until 2011, when growth forecast at 3.8 percent to 5 percent reduces the unemployment rate to a range of 6.7 percent to 7.5 percent. 

Economic models used by Macroeconomic Advisers LLC show the Obama stimulus package could keep the jobless rate at about 8.8 percent instead of the 9.5 percent rate that would result without the package. 

The Fed is stepping up efforts to stem the worst credit crisis in seven decades by expanding a program aimed at supporting consumer and business loans to $1 trillion from $200 billion and adding commercial real estate. It is also buying $600 billion of debt sold by government-backed housing finance companies and mortgage-backed securities they guarantee. 

To contact the reporters on this story: Craig Torres in Washington at ctorres3@bloomberg.net; Scott Lanman in Washington at slanman@bloomberg.net 

Last Updated: March 3, 2009 10:08 EST

Microsoft founder head Bill Gates has banned the use of products made by arch-rival Apple from his house, his wife has revealed.

But the blockade could backfire on Gates, 53, after Melinda admitted there are times she feels envious of her friends' iPhones.
She told Vogue magazine that the couple's three children Jennifer, 13, Rory, 10 and Phoebe, seven, are not allowed Apple products.
Banned: Bill Gates, above, has banned Apple products in his home - but his wife Melinda, above, has admitted she wouldn't mind an iPhone
'There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household,' she said.
'But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids.'
Like any forbidden fruit, however, Mrs Gates, 44, admitted that some Apple products do have the power to tempt her.
'Every now and then I look at my friends and say 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone,' she admitted.
For many years, Microsoft had a monopoly on the technology market.
But over the last decade, the popularity of new Apple products such as the iPod and the iPhone as well as their computers, has promoted the company to chief rival.
There have been rumours of animosity between Gates and Apple founder Steve Jobs but the pair have made public efforts to appear friends.

The Gates live in a vast mansion on the shores of Lake Washington and are very protective of the privacy of their children.
Gates stepped down as chief executive of Microsoft to concentrate on charity the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the world's biggest philanthropic organisation.

Apple's Steve Jobs, meanwhile, has been forced to take sick leave because of health problems.

By Thomas Content and Joe Taschler of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Mar. 5, 2009

In a move hailed by Wisconsin industries as an important victory, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously in favor of legislation that would repeal railroads' immunity under federal antitrust laws.

The measure was written by Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl, who said the industry's current exemptions deny rail consumers antitrust protections available in virtually every other industry.

"Over the past several years, railroad shippers of vital commodities have faced spiking rail rates," Kohl said. "Rail customers are forced to pass these price increases along into the price of their products, and ultimately, to consumers. Our bill will enact a simple and straightforward remedy - eliminate the outmoded antitrust exemptions."

The committee vote is its first in decades rebuking the railroad industry, according to bill supporters.

Wisconsin companies, including electric utilities that import coal from Wyoming, have faced surcharges and service disruptions from railroads in recent years. The surcharges have contributed in part to rising electricity prices.

"Many of Wisconsin's leading industries depend on rail to transport coal, grain, corn, forest products, chemicals and other commodities that cannot be shipped economically by truck or other means," said Matt Bromley, coordinator of Wisconsin Consumers United for Rail Equity, which has been pushing for the legislation.

Over the last 20 years, railroad industry consolidation has reached the point where only four Class I railroads provide over 90% of the nation's rail transportation, Kohl said. Many industries - known as "captive shippers" - are served by only one railroad. These captive shippers have faced constantly rising rail rates, he said.

The four railroads operating in Wisconsin are Burlington Northern Santa Fe; Union Pacific; Canadian National; and Canadian Pacific, according to the Commissioner of Railroads.

In 2006, the most recent year for which data are available, the largest freight category delivered to the state was coal at 43 million tons, followed by metallic ores at 13 million tons. The figures come from the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.

The Association of American Railroads opposes the bill, which would add Justice Department oversight to the Surface Transportation Board's existing rail-rate regulation.

"Overlapping regulatory schemes could derail the industry's ability to meet the nation's increased need for environmentally sound freight transportation," Ed Hamberger, the association's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"Congress should be promoting policies that help jump-start the economy and regain consumer confidence, not overburden an industry that stands ready to get America back on track," he said.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

Secret anti-terror Bush memos made public by Obama

Mar 2 04:11 PM US/Eastern
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer Comments (233) Share on Facebook

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department on Monday released a long-secret legal document from 2001 in which the Bush administration claimed the military could search and seize terror suspects in the United States without warrants.

The legal memo was written about a month after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. It says constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure would not apply to terror suspects in the U.S., as long as the president or another high official authorized the action.

Even after the Bush administration rescinded that legal analysis, the Justice Department refused to release its contents, prompting a standoff with congressional Democrats.

The memo was one of nine released Monday by the Obama administration.

Another memo showed that, within two weeks of Sept. 11, the administration was contemplating ways to use wiretaps without getting warrants.

The author of the search and seizure memo, John Yoo, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

In that memo, @@Yoo wrote that the president could treat terrorist suspects in the United States like an invading foreign army. For instance, he said, the military would not have to get a warrant to storm a building to prevent terrorists from detonating a bomb.@@

Yoo also suggested that the government could put new restrictions on the press and speech, without spelling out what those might be.

"First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote, adding later: "The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically."

While they were once important legal pillars of the U.S. fight against al-Qaida, ''all of the memos were withdrawn in the final days of the Bush administration''.

In one of his first official acts as president, Barack Obama also signed an order negating the memos' claims until his administration could conduct a thorough review.

In a speech Monday, Obama's attorney general, @@Eric Holder@@ said that too often in the past decade the fight against terrorism has been put in opposition to @@"our tradition of civil liberties."

That "has done us more harm than good,"@@ he declared. "I've often said that the test of a great nation is whether it will adhere to its core values not only when it is easy but when it is hard."
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Administration sought unchecked wartime authority
By David G. Savage | Washington Bureau
March 4, 2009
WASHINGTON — Legal experts said Tuesday they were taken aback by the claim in the latest batch of secret Bush-era memos that the president alone had the power to set the rules during the war on terrorism.

Yale law professor Jack Balkin called this a "theory of presidential dictatorship. They say the battlefield is everywhere. And the president can do anything he wants, so long as it involves the military and the enemy."

The criticism was not limited to liberals. "I agree with the left on this one," said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University. The approach in the memos "was simply not a plausible reading of the case law. The Bush [Office of Legal Counsel] eventually rejected [the] memos because they were wrong on the law, and they were right to do so."

Defenders of the administration stress that the memos were written during a time of national emergency. Officials feared, and indeed, expected another terrorist attack within the U.S. They were determined to take all possible steps to prevent it. And by the time the Bush administration came to an end, views within the Justice Department had changed dramatically.

Still, critics said some in the Bush administration took advantage of the moment.

"This was a period of panic, and panic creates an opportunity for patriotic politicians to abuse their power," Balkin said.

The newly released memos were mostly written between 2001 and 2003, and they gave the government broad legal authorization for fighting a new war in a new way. Their common theme was that no laws can limit the president's power in fighting terrorists.

Congress had prohibited the use of torture by U.S. agents, and it said "no citizen shall be imprisoned" in this country without legal charges. The memos said neither law could stand in the way of the president's power as commander in chief.

A March 2002 memo, for example, said holding prisoners in wartime "is an area in which the president appears to enjoy exclusive authority, as the power ... is not reserved by the Constitution in whole or in part to any other branch of government."

Duke Law School professor Walter Dellinger said the Constitution gives Congress considerable power for making wartime rules. Article I says Congress has "all legislative powers," including the power "to declare war ... and make rules concerning captures on land and water" as well as "regulation of the land and naval forces."

"You can never get over how bad these opinions were," said Dellinger, who headed the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in the Clinton administration. "The assertion that Congress has no role to play with respect to the detention of prisoners was contrary to the Constitution's text, to judicial precedent and to historical practice. For people who supposedly follow the text [of the Constitution], what don't they understand about the phrase 'make rules concerning captures on land and water'?"

Most of the memos were written by John Yoo, a deputy director of the Office of Legal Counsel. This small, obscure office writes legal opinions for the attorney general and others in the government. Yoo's memos gave legal guidance to the Defense Department and the White House.

Five days before the Bush administration came to an end, Steven Bradbury, the head of the office, wrote an 11-page memo "for the files" explaining how his office had gone wrong.

Bradbury said many of the legal positions issued between 2001 and 2003 are "not consistent with the current views of OLC."

dsavage2@tribune.com

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Comments: 30Read Comments Leave a Comment By JAMIE SCHRAM

Last updated: 10:29 am
March 6, 2009
Posted: 2:04 am
March 6, 2009

It started with a simple request: Stop talking so loud on your cellphone.

But what happened next in a Borough Park bodega nearly put the woman who made the request in the hospital - with bruises to her body, coffee burns to her face and stiletto-heel injuries to her legs, police said yesterday

The victim, whose name is being withheld, was standing in line Wednesday morning at the store on Ditmas Avenue near McDonald Avenue, paying for her purchases, when Berta Rakhamimov, 21, started blabbing away on her cellphone.

The victim asked Rakhamimov to lower her voice, then walked outside. But Rakhamimov came after her, spurring a yapper-versus-scolder battle of epic proportions, police said.

First, the yapper pushed the scolder with two hands to the chest. Then the yapper threw her newly purchased coffee into the scolder's face, police said.

The yapper allegedly started boxing the scalded scolder, biting her on the finger and kicking her thigh with her high heels.

When the shaken woman said she would notify the police - and pulled out her own cellphone to make the call - Rakhamimov ran toward a bus that had just pulled into the nearby stop, police said.

The victim shouted to the bus driver not to let Rakhamimov on the bus, and Rakhamimov then fled down the stairs to a nearby subway station. The victim gave chase.

When police arrived, the victim pointed out Rakhamimov, and the cops told the conductor to hold the train.

Rakhamimov was arrested on charges of assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon - the coffee, not the cellphone.

jamie.schram@nypost.com

March 4, 2009 12:32 PM | 1 Comment
While he was city Streets and Sanitation commissioner, Al Sanchez sat atop a powerful political organization that traded hundreds of city jobs for campaign work, stripping the legitimacy from Chicago's hiring system, federal prosecutors said today.

In opening remarks to a federal jury at Sanchez's trial, a prosecutor said auditoriums full of applicants seeking city jobs waited for interviews that didn't matter because of the corruption.

"It was a sham from top to bottom," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Steven Grimes.

Sanchez, a leader in the Hispanic Democratic Organization, one of the city's most powerful political groups, is on trial at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on seven counts of mail fraud stemming from falsified documents sent to job applicants. Aaron Delvalle, Sanchez's right-hand man, is also on trial on charges he lied to a grand jury investigating the hiring fraud.

Grimes described how workers requested positions or promotions, relaying their wishes to HDO coordinators who passed them to Sanchez and Delvalle.

"Mr. Sanchez used city jobs as currency," Grimes said.

Sanchez then went to the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to fight for jobs for HDO participants. Grimes called him a fierce competitor who often got his way.

Prosecutors promised witnesses from inside City Hall and HDO who would describe the corrupt process.

Loyal HDO workers beat the system and got work, he said, and Sanchez beat the system and built a powerful organization.

"The evidence will show that these people didn't win fairly," Grimes told the jury. "These people cheated."

Defense lawyers in the case are expected to give their opening statements later today.

The trial opened after U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman denied a motion by the defense that accused prosecutors of unfairly striking Hispanics from the jury. Gettleman said he found no evidence that had occurred.

There were only five Hispanics in the original pool of 80, and one ended up on the jury, the judge noted.

-- Jeff Coen

Citigroup Inc. announced Tuesday a new program aimed at addressing the latest challenge facing the mortgage industry: unemployed homeowners.

Under the program, Citigroup will temporarily lower mortgage payments to an average of $500 a month for certain borrowers who have recently lost their jobs and are at least 60 days behind on their mortgage payments. Borrowers will be allowed to make the lower payments for three months. Citigroup will waive interest and penalties during this period.

Tracking the Economy
House May Tighten 'Cramdown' MeasureSortable Chart: First-Quarter LayoffsCitigroup's announcement comes days before the Obama administration is expected to announce guidelines for its massive loan-modification program, a cornerstone of its effort to fight the housing crisis. The bank's new initiative takes aim at one of the hardest groups of borrowers to assist: those who have seen their income fall sharply.

"We expect that there will be thousands of people we can help," said Sanjiv Das, chief executive of CitiMortgage, who called rising unemployment "the single biggest issue facing mortgage servicers." Although the novel program will help just a small fraction of troubled borrowers, Mr. Das said he hopes it will be copied by others in the industry.

To qualify for the program, borrowers must live in the home and have a mortgage that is owned and serviced by CitiMortgage. The program applies only to loans of $417,500 or lower. Citigroup holds 1.4 million mortgages on its books. It also services another four million loans for others, but those don't qualify for the program.

Citigroup has received at least $45 billion in taxpayer funds, and the federal government is now poised to boost its stake in the company to as high as 36%. That has raised fears on Wall Street that the company will take steps that are politically, but not financially, helpful.

In January, the New York bank bucked the rest of the industry and endorsed legislation that would allow bankruptcy-court judges to modify the terms of troubled mortgages. Citigroup executives have said that move, which could take a toll on the company's bottom line, was designed to win favor in Washington.

Mr. Das said the federal government "had no role at all" in the company's latest loan-modification effort. The new program "was created by us, developed by us and is now being implemented by us," he said. "There was no pressure at all."

The new initiative follows Citigroup's announcement in November that it would offer to modify the terms of as much as $20 billion of mortgages for borrowers who are current on their loan payments, but are at risk of falling behind. Citigroup declined to provide figures on the number of loans modified under that program, but a spokesman said the bank has been in contact with about 50,000 at-risk borrowers, has done "some workouts" and has "several thousand loans in the pipeline."

The weakening economy is creating a new wave of troubled borrowers, many of whom are grappling with job losses or reduced hours. The unemployment rate climbed to 7.6% in January from 7.2% in December, according to the Labor Department.

At Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, 20% to 30% of homeowners seeking assistance need help "because economic conditions have made them unable to pay their loans," said Michael van Zalingen, director of homeownership services. A year ago, "virtually all" the borrowers seeking to avoid foreclosure had subprime adjustable-rate mortgages and were facing interest-rate resets, he said.

Many of those struggling because of the weakening economy have few options. Borrowers who have lost their jobs are the hardest to help, because "they don't have the income to make a payment anymore," Mr. van Zalingen said.

Borrowers who qualify for the program typically spend an average of $1,500 a month on mortgage-related payments. The lower, $500-a-month payment was designed to make the mortgage a financially viable alternative to renting an apartment for borrowers struggling with temporary job loss, Mr. Das says. Average rents on a one-bedroom apartment range from $713 a month in the Southwest to $1,623 in the Northeast, according to real-estate research firm Reis Inc.

To qualify for the program, borrowers have to provide proof of unemployment. They must also sign a form promising that they will look for a job and let Citigroup know if they've found one.

Write to Ruth Simon at ruth.simon@wsj.com

By David Brunnstrom

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hillary as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's.

Clinton has set herself a grueling pace on visits to Egypt, Israel and Brussels soon after touring the Far East, attending dozens of meetings and giving speech after speech, with little time worked into her schedule for sleep.

Tiredness appeared to show Friday when she answered questions in front of 500 young Europeans at the European Parliament, where she was the highest-ranking U.S. visitor since the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

A veteran politician, Clinton compared the complex European political environment to that of the two-party U.S. system, before adding:

"I have never understood multiparty democracy.

"It is hard enough with two parties to come to any resolution, and I say this very respectfully, because I feel the same way about our own democracy, which has been around a lot longer than European democracy."

The remark provoked much headshaking in the parliament of a bloc that likes to trace back its democratic tradition thousands of years to the days of classical Greece.

One working lunch later with EU leaders, Clinton raised more eyebrows when she referred to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who stood beside her, as "High Representative Solano."

She also dubbed European Commission External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner as "Benito."

Still, Clinton has been well received in Brussels, where the Obama administration has been viewed as a breath of fresh air after the unpopular leadership of George W. Bush. His secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, often drew protests on her travels.

Fellow foreign ministers stood and applauded Clinton's presentation at a meeting with NATO counterparts Thursday and extra space had to be set aside for a spillover audience of 800 at the European Parliament.

Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering was effusive in his praise, saying that with the new administration, the United States and Europe once again "share the same values."

"What you said mostly could have been said by a European," he told Clinton after she fielded questions ranging from climate change to energy security and aid to Africa and one on gay rights from a participant wearing an "I love Hillary" t-shirt.

(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming, Sarah Luehrs and Darren

Ennis; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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By Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- Forget the pork. Forget the waste. Forget the 8,570 earmarks in a bill supported by a president who poses as the scourge of earmarks. Forget the "$2 trillion dollars in savings" that "we have already identified," $1.6 trillion of which President Obama's budget director later admits is the "savings" of not continuing the surge in Iraq until 2019 -- 11 years after George Bush ended it, and eight years after even Bush would have had us out of Iraq completely.

Forget all of this. This is run-of-the-mill budget trickery. True, Obama's tricks come festooned with strings of zeros tacked onto the end. But that's a matter of scale, not principle.

All presidents do that. But few undertake the kind of brazen deception at the heart of Obama's radically transformative economic plan, a rhetorical sleight of hand so smoothly offered that few noticed.

The logic of Obama's address to Congress went like this:

"Our economy did not fall into decline overnight," he averred. Indeed, it all began before the housing crisis. What did we do wrong? We are paying for past sins in three principal areas: energy, health care, and education -- importing too much oil and not finding new sources of energy (as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf?), not reforming health care, and tolerating too many bad schools.

The "day of reckoning" has now arrived. And because "it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we'll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament," Obama has come to redeem us with his far-seeing program of universal, heavily nationalized health care; a cap-and-trade tax on energy; and a major federalization of education with universal access to college as the goal.

Amazing. As an explanation of our current economic difficulties, this is total fantasy. As a cure for rapidly growing joblessness, a massive destruction of wealth, a deepening worldwide recession, this is perhaps the greatest non sequitur ever foisted upon the American people.

At the very center of our economic near-depression is a credit bubble, a housing collapse and a systemic failure of the entire banking system. One can come up with a host of causes: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pushed by Washington (and greed) into improvident loans, corrupted bond-ratings agencies, insufficient regulation of new and exotic debt instruments, the easy money policy of Alan Greenspan's Fed, irresponsible bankers pushing (and then unloading in packaged loan instruments) highly dubious mortgages, greedy house-flippers, deceitful homebuyers.

The list is long. But the list of causes of the collapse of the financial system does not include the absence of universal health care, let alone of computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy. Nor the lack of college graduates. Indeed, one could perversely make the case that, if anything, the proliferation of overeducated, Gucci-wearing, smart-ass MBAs inventing ever more sophisticated and opaque mathematical models and debt instruments helped get us into this credit catastrophe in the first place.

And yet with our financial house on fire, Obama makes clear both in his speech and his budget that the essence of his presidency will be the transformation of health care, education and energy. Four months after winning the election, six weeks after his swearing in, Obama has yet to unveil a plan to deal with the banking crisis.

What's going on? "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."

Things. Now we know what they are. The markets' recent precipitous decline is a reaction not just to the absence of any plausible bank rescue plan, but also to the suspicion that Obama sees the continuing financial crisis as usefully creating the psychological conditions -- the sense of crisis bordering on fear-itself panic -- for enacting his "Big Bang" agenda to federalize and/or socialize health care, education and energy, the commanding heights of post-industrial society.

Clever politics, but intellectually dishonest to the core. Health, education and energy -- worthy and weighty as they may be -- are not the cause of our financial collapse. And they are not the cure. The fraudulent claim that they are both cause and cure is the rhetorical device by which an ambitious president intends to enact the most radical agenda of social transformation seen in our lifetime.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com

Decremental? Fitting Word for Ugly Times

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By JEFF D. OPDYKE

Every era on Wall Street has its buzzwords, terms that capture a prevailing mood or business theme. In today's era of economic decline, that term is "decremental."

It is showing up these days in analysts' research reports for companies ranging from Caterpillar and Baker Hughes, to Genuine Parts and Emerson Electric. In a recent report on Watts Water Technologies, J.P. Morgan Chase analyst Stephen Tusa noted that his 2009 estimates for the maker of water-control products reflects "a roughly 20% decremental margin in North America and Europe."

"I don't even know if it's a real word, because it's always underlined in red in my Word documents," Mr. Tusa says. "I've been writing [research reports] since 2004, and this is my first time using it. I think it might be a made-up word. But it fits, and it's in almost every report these days."

Decremental is a real word; it's a negative increment, or the linguistic inverse of incremental. And it has long been part of Wall Street's financial lexicon.

But the use of decremental to describe today's declines in corporate profitability has become so prevalent that in the first eight weeks of this year it has appeared in 531 research reports, according to Thomson One Analytics. That almost equals the number of mentions in all of 2008 -- and is nearly double the number in 2007.

The word ultimately translates into shrinking earnings power, which is a big factor in stock-market declines that have driven share prices to their lowest level in more than a decade. So far in this earnings season, overall quarterly operating earnings for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index have fallen some 70% compared with last year, according to S&P. The index itself finished last week at 735.09, the lowest close in more than 12 years, and down almost 19% in 2009.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 7062.93, a nearly 12-year low, down nearly 20% so far this year.

Decremental margin boils down to this: It is effectively the opposite of operating leverage, or the degree to which each dollar of incremental income adds to profits. Businesses have certain fixed costs necessary for a certain level of sales; when sales are rising, executives ramp up their business to meet new demand, adding workers, production plants and raw materials needed to make the goods. But when sales evaporate, as is happening across so many industries today, companies aren't as adroit at pulling their costs back out of their production process. S&P data indicate that cumulative sales for the S&P 500 companies so far in this quarterly reporting season are down almost 9%.

Though "decremental" is showing up most frequently in reports on U.S. stocks, it is also popping up abroad, particularly in Europe.

In London, Deutsche Bank analyst Peter Reilly used the term in an early February report on Britain's Cookson Group, a material-sciences company. He calls it "an ugly word," and says it's "just a fancy way" of measuring the degree to which earnings decline with each dollar of sales lost.

"If a company sells $100 less widgets and profit falls by $20, then the margin on decremental sales is 20%," he says. For Cookson, Mr. Reilly's report noted that 30% decremental margins means that "every £10 million ($14.3 million) of lost revenue is £3 million of lost operating profit." Mr. Reilly says that instead of decremental margins, analysts could "talk about 'under-absorption of overheads,' which is based on the same principle, but causes most people's eyes to glaze over."

The companies for which this is most significant tend to be those that must pay for huge investments in plant and inventory even as sales tumble.

"The costs of the business are not being absorbed by the level of production," and profits tumble, says Terry Darling, a Goldman Sachs analyst who recently warned of higher decremental margins at farm-equipment maker Deere & Co.

Deere is one of the companies with a relatively high decremental margin: about 36% in the latest quarter, according to a recent Longbow Research report. The farm-machinery maker recently reported profit for the quarter ended Jan. 31 was down 45%, well below last year and well under analysts' expectations. Its stock price has fallen 28% this year. A Deere spokesman had no comment.

Decremental margins tend to matter most early in a down cycle, when sales are falling faster than companies can cut costs. The term "has taken on heightened significance now because companies have just started to see revenues fall off," says Holden Lewis, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets. The industrial-services companies he tracks began seeing sales growth turn negative in the fourth quarter, "and that's when I began to use decremental margins," he says. "It suddenly became a really big deal."

Goldman's Mr. Darling points out that today's margins might not be as bad as they could get for some companies. Though utilization of plants has fallen off, many companies pushed through price increases in recent months to compensate for rising commodity prices. Those prices are propping up margins. If prices are rolled back, as some analysts expect, margins could decline further.

There is, however, a silver lining in all this. Decremental margin is, ultimately, a measure of operating leverage. Companies with the highest decremental margins also tend to have the highest incremental margins.

Thus, when the economy turns, the companies being pinched the worst are the ones "that will be equally good when we're back to talking about incremental margin," says BB&T's Mr. Lewis.

Write to Jeff D. Opdyke at jeff.opdyke@wsj.com

The Obama Economy 
As the .Article
 
As 2009 opened, three weeks before Barack Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9034 on January 2, its highest level since the autumn panic. Yesterday the Dow fell another 4.24% to 6763, for @@an overall decline of 25%@@ in two months and to its lowest level since 1997. The dismaying message here is that President Obama's policies have become part of the economy's problem.

Americans have welcomed the Obama era in the same spirit of hope the President campaigned on. But after five weeks in office, @@it's become clear that Mr. Obama's policies are slowing, if not stopping, what would otherwise be the normal process of economic recovery@@. From punishing business to squandering scarce national public resources, Team Obama is creating more @@uncertainty and less confidence@@ -- and thus a longer period of recession or subpar growth.

 The Democrats who now run Washington don't want to hear this, because they benefit from blaming all bad economic news on President Bush. And Mr. Obama has inherited an unusual recession deepened by credit problems, both of which will take time to climb out of. But it's also true that the economy has fallen far enough, and long enough, that much of the excess that led to recession is being worked off. Already 15 months old, the current recession will soon match the average length -- and average job loss -- of the last three postwar downturns. @@What goes down will come up -- unless destructive policies interfere with the sources of potential recovery@@.

And those sources have been forming for some time. The @@price of oil@@ and other commodities have fallen by two-thirds since their 2008 summer peak, which has the effect of a major tax cut. The world is @@awash in liquidity@@, thanks to monetary ease by the Federal Reserve and other central banks. Monetary policy operates with a lag, but last year's easing will eventually stir economic activity.

Housing prices have fallen 27% from their Case-Shiller peak, or some two-thirds of the way back to their historical trend. While still high, credit spreads are far from their peaks during the panic, and corporate borrowers are again able to tap the credit markets. As equities were signaling with their late 2008 rally and January top, growth should under normal circumstances begin to appear in the second half of this year.

So what has happened @@in the last two months? The economy has received no great new outside shock@@. Exchange rates and other prices have been stable, and there are no security crises of note. The reality of a sharp recession has been known and built into stock prices since last year's fourth quarter.

What is new is the unveiling of Mr. Obama's agenda and his approach to governance. Every new President has a finite stock of capital -- financial and political -- to deploy, and amid recession Mr. Obama has more than most. But one negative revelation has been the way he has chosen to spend his scarce resources on income transfers rather than growth promotion. Most of his "stimulus" spending was devoted to @@social programs@@, rather than public works, and nearly all of the tax cuts were devoted to income maintenance rather than to improving incentives to work or invest.

His Treasury has been making a similar mistake with its financial bailout plans. The banking system needs to work through its losses, and one necessary use of public capital is to assist in burning down those bad assets as fast as possible. Yet most of Team Obama's ministrations so far have gone toward @@triage and life support, rather than repair and recovery@@.

AIG yesterday received its fourth "rescue," including $70 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program cash, without any clear business direction. (See here.) Citigroup's restructuring last week added not a dollar of new capital, and also no clear direction. Perhaps the imminent Treasury "stress tests" will clear the decks, but until they do the banks are all living in fear of becoming the next AIG. All of this squanders public money that could better go toward burning down bank debt.

The market has notably plunged since Mr. Obama introduced his budget last week, and that should be no surprise. @@The document was a declaration of hostility toward capitalists across the economy@@. Health-care stocks have dived on fears of new government mandates and price controls. Private lenders to students have been told they're no longer wanted. Anyone who uses carbon energy has been warned to expect a huge tax increase from cap and trade. And every risk-taker and investor now knows that another tax increase will slam the economy in 2011, unless Mr. Obama lets Speaker Nancy Pelosi impose one even earlier.

Meanwhile, Congress demands more bank lending even as it assails lenders and threatens to let judges rewrite mortgage contracts. The powers in Congress -- unrebuked by Mr. Obama -- are ridiculing and punishing the very capitalists who are essential to a sustainable recovery. The result has been a capital strike, and the return of the fear from last year that we could face a far deeper downturn. This is no way to nurture a wounded economy back to health.

Listening to Mr. Obama and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, on the weekend, we couldn't help but wonder if they appreciate any of this. They seem preoccupied with going to the barricades against Republicans who wield little power, or @@picking a fight with Rush Limbaugh@@, as if this is the kind of economic leadership Americans want.

Perhaps they're reading the polls and figure they have two or three years before voters stop blaming Republicans and Mr. Bush for the economy. Even if that's right in the long run, in the meantime their assault on business and investors is delaying a recovery and ensuring that the expansion will be weaker than it should be when it finally does arrive.

 

Please add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum.

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to their lowest point in more than 75 years, as investors fretted that despite government help the ailing automaker may still be forced to file for bankruptcy protection.
GM shares hit a low of $1.27 in late morning trading Friday, before rebounding to $1.45 in midday trading.

The low point matched a record set on May 4, 1933, according to the Center for Research in Security Prices at the University of Chicago. The price is adjusted for splits and other changes.

GM released a statement Friday saying that it had not changed it position on a possible bankruptcy protection filing, and that an out of court restructuring remains its best option.

"As a prudent business measure, the company has analyzed various bankruptcy scenarios," GM said in its statement.

"However, the company firmly believes an in-court restructuring would carry with it tremendous costs and risks, the most significant being a dramatic deterioration of revenue due to lost sales."

Even if the automaker doesn't file for bankruptcy protection, analysts have said that a government bailout of the automaker will also dilute its shares to the point that they are nearly worthless.

Friday's stock drop comes as members of the Obama administration's auto task force continue to meet with GM's stakeholders and weigh their options.

On Thursday, members of the task force met with representatives of General Motors' bondholders, along with the chief executive of Fiat Group SpA whose company wants to form an alliance with GM's fellow ailing automaker Chrysler LLC.

The news came on the same day that Detroit-based GM released its annual report in which its auditors said they had doubts about whether GM can overcome its staggering losses and generate enough cash to stay in business.

GM said in the report that it's on the edge of bankruptcy and won't be able to avoid it unless it gets more government money and successfully executes a huge restructuring plan.

The automaker lost $30.9 billion last year, is living on $13.4 billion in U.S. government loans, and is seeking up to $30 billion as it tries to survive the worst auto sales climate in 27 years.

GM is also hoping to get help from other countries. The automaker's Adam Opel AG subsidiary wants to secure at least $3.8 billion from the German government.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

the you are nice tiddler

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	}},

	showWhenTaggedAny: { handler: function (place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
		removeElementWhen( !tiddler.tags.containsAny(params), place);
	}},

	hideWhenTaggedAll: { handler: function (place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
		removeElementWhen( tiddler.tags.containsAll(params), place);
	}},

	showWhenTaggedAll: { handler: function (place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
		removeElementWhen( !tiddler.tags.containsAll(params), place);
	}},

	hideWhenExists: { handler: function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
		removeElementWhen( store.tiddlerExists(params[0]) || store.isShadowTiddler(params[0]), place);
	}},

	showWhenExists: { handler: function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
		removeElementWhen( !(store.tiddlerExists(params[0]) || store.isShadowTiddler(params[0])), place);
	}},

	hideWhenTitleIs: { handler: function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
		removeElementWhen( tiddler.title == params[0], place);
	}},

	showWhenTitleIs: { handler: function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
		removeElementWhen( tiddler.title != params[0], place);
	}},

	'else': { handler: function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
		removeElementWhen( !window.hideWhenLastTest, place);
	}}

});

//}}}

/***
|Name|HoverMenuPlugin|
|Created by|SaqImtiaz|
|Location|http://tw.lewcid.org/#HoverMenuPlugin|
|Version|1.11|
|Requires|~TW2.x|
!Description:
Provides a hovering menu on the edge of the screen for commonly used commands, that scrolls with the page.

!Demo:
Observe the hovering menu on the right edge of the screen.

!Installation:
Copy the contents of this tiddler to your TW, tag with systemConfig, save and reload your TW.
To customize your HoverMenu, edit the HoverMenu shadow tiddler.

To customize whether the menu sticks to the right or left edge of the screen, and its start position, edit the HoverMenu configuration settings part of the code below. It's well documented, so don't be scared!

The menu has an id of hoverMenu, in case you want to style the buttons in it using css.

!Notes:
Since the default HoverMenu contains buttons for toggling the side bar and jumping to the top of the screen and to open tiddlers, the ToggleSideBarMacro, JumpMacro and the JumpToTopMacro are included in this tiddler, so you dont need to install them separately. Having them installed separately as well could lead to complications.

If you dont intend to use these three macros at all, feel free to remove those sections of code in this tiddler.

!To Do:
* rework code to allow multiple hovering menus in different positions, horizontal etc.
* incorporate code for keyboard shortcuts that correspond to the buttons in the hovermenu

!History:
*03-08-06, ver 1.1.2: compatibility fix with SelectThemePlugin
*03-08-06,  ver 1.11: fixed error with button tooltips
*27-07-06, ver 1.1 : added JumpMacro to hoverMenu
*23-07-06

!Code
***/

/***
start HoverMenu plugin code
***/
//{{{
config.hoverMenu={};
//}}}

/***
HoverMenu configuration settings
***/
//{{{
config.hoverMenu.settings={
               align: 'right',    //align menu to right or left side of screen, possible values are 'right' and 'left'               
               x: 1,              // horizontal distance of menu from side of screen, increase to your liking.
               y: 158            //vertical distance of menu from top of screen at start, increase or decrease to your liking
               };
//}}}

//{{{
//continue HoverMenu plugin code
config.hoverMenu.handler=function()
{              
               if (!document.getElementById("hoverMenu"))
               {
               var theMenu = createTiddlyElement(document.getElementById("contentWrapper"), "div","hoverMenu");
               theMenu.setAttribute("refresh","content");
               theMenu.setAttribute("tiddler","HoverMenu");
               var menuContent = store.getTiddlerText("HoverMenu");
               wikify(menuContent,theMenu);
              }

	       var Xloc = this.settings.x;
	       Yloc =this.settings.y;
	       var ns = (navigator.appName.indexOf("Netscape") != -1);
	       function SetMenu(id)
                        {
		        var GetElements=document.getElementById?document.getElementById(id):document.all?document.all[id]:document.layers[id];
		        if(document.layers)GetElements.style=GetElements;
		        GetElements.sP=function(x,y){this.style[config.hoverMenu.settings.align]=x +"px";this.style.top=y +"px";};
		        GetElements.x = Xloc;
		        GetElements.y = findScrollY();
		        GetElements.y += Yloc;
		        return GetElements;
	                }
               window.LoCate_XY=function()
                        {
		        var pY =  findScrollY();
                        ftlObj.y += (pY + Yloc - ftlObj.y)/15;
		        ftlObj.sP(ftlObj.x, ftlObj.y);
		        setTimeout("LoCate_XY()", 10);
	                }
               ftlObj = SetMenu("hoverMenu");
	       LoCate_XY();
};

window.old_lewcid_hovermenu_restart = restart;
restart = function()
{
               window.old_lewcid_hovermenu_restart();
               config.hoverMenu.handler();
};

setStylesheet(
"#hoverMenu .imgLink, #hoverMenu .imgLink:hover {border:none; padding:0px; float:right; margin-bottom:2px; margin-top:0px;}\n"+
"#hoverMenu  .button, #hoverMenu  .tiddlyLink {border:none; font-weight:bold; background:#18f; color:#FFF; padding:0 5px; float:right; margin-bottom:4px;}\n"+
"#hoverMenu .button:hover, #hoverMenu .tiddlyLink:hover {font-weight:bold; border:none; color:#fff; background:#000; padding:0 5px; float:right; margin-bottom:4px;}\n"+
"#hoverMenu .button {width:100%; text-align:center}"+
"#hoverMenu { position:absolute; width:7px;}\n"+
"\n","hoverMenuStyles");


config.macros.renameButton={};
config.macros.renameButton.handler = function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler)
{

               if (place.lastChild.tagName!="BR")
                     {
                      place.lastChild.firstChild.data = params[0];
                      if (params[1]) {place.lastChild.title = params[1];}
                     }
};

config.shadowTiddlers["HoverMenu"]="<<top>>\n<<toggleSideBar>><<renameButton '>' >>\n<<jump j '' top>>\n<<saveChanges>><<renameButton s 'Save TiddlyWiki'>>\n<<newTiddler>><<renameButton n>>\n";
//}}}
//end HoverMenu plugin code

//Start ToggleSideBarMacro code
//{{{
config.macros.toggleSideBar={};

config.macros.toggleSideBar.settings={
         styleHide :  "#sidebar { display: none;}\n"+"#contentWrapper #displayArea { margin-right: 1em;}\n"+"",
         styleShow : " ",
         arrow1: "«",
         arrow2: "»"
};

config.macros.toggleSideBar.handler=function (place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler)
{
          var tooltip= params[1]||'toggle sidebar';
          var mode = (params[2] && params[2]=="hide")? "hide":"show";
          var arrow = (mode == "hide")? this.settings.arrow1:this.settings.arrow2;
          var label= (params[0]&&params[0]!='.')?params[0]+" "+arrow:arrow;
          var theBtn = createTiddlyButton(place,label,tooltip,this.onToggleSideBar,"button HideSideBarButton");
          if (mode == "hide")
             { 
             (document.getElementById("sidebar")).setAttribute("toggle","hide");
              setStylesheet(this.settings.styleHide,"ToggleSideBarStyles");
             }
};

config.macros.toggleSideBar.onToggleSideBar = function(){
          var sidebar = document.getElementById("sidebar");
          var settings = config.macros.toggleSideBar.settings;
          if (sidebar.getAttribute("toggle")=='hide')
             {
              setStylesheet(settings.styleShow,"ToggleSideBarStyles");
              sidebar.setAttribute("toggle","show");
              this.firstChild.data= (this.firstChild.data).replace(settings.arrow1,settings.arrow2);
              }
          else
              {    
               setStylesheet(settings.styleHide,"ToggleSideBarStyles");
               sidebar.setAttribute("toggle","hide");
               this.firstChild.data= (this.firstChild.data).replace(settings.arrow2,settings.arrow1);
              }

     return false;
}

setStylesheet(".HideSideBarButton .button {font-weight:bold; padding: 0 5px;}\n","ToggleSideBarButtonStyles");
//}}}
//end ToggleSideBarMacro code

//start JumpToTopMacro code
//{{{
config.macros.top={};
config.macros.top.handler=function(place,macroName)
{
               createTiddlyButton(place,"^","jump to top",this.onclick);
}
config.macros.top.onclick=function()
{
               window.scrollTo(0,0);
};

config.commands.top =
{
               text:" ^ ",
               tooltip:"jump to top"
};

config.commands.top.handler = function(event,src,title)
{
               window.scrollTo(0,0);
}
//}}}
//end JumpToStartMacro code

//start JumpMacro code
//{{{
config.macros.jump= {};
config.macros.jump.handler = function (place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler)
{
        var label = (params[0] && params[0]!=".")? params[0]: 'jump';
        var tooltip = (params[1] && params[1]!=".")? params[1]: 'jump to an open tiddler';
        var top = (params[2] && params[2]=='top') ? true: false;        

        var btn =createTiddlyButton(place,label,tooltip,this.onclick);
        if (top==true)
              btn.setAttribute("top","true")
}

config.macros.jump.onclick = function(e)
{
        if (!e) var e = window.event;
        var theTarget = resolveTarget(e);
        var top = theTarget.getAttribute("top");
	var popup = Popup.create(this);
	if(popup)
		{
                 if(top=="true")
                                {createTiddlyButton(createTiddlyElement(popup,"li"),'Top ↑','Top of TW',config.macros.jump.top);
                                 createTiddlyElement(popup,"hr");}
		
		story.forEachTiddler(function(title,element) {
			createTiddlyLink(createTiddlyElement(popup,"li"),title,true);
			});
                }
	Popup.show(popup,false);
	e.cancelBubble = true;
	if (e.stopPropagation) e.stopPropagation();
	return false;
}

config.macros.jump.top = function()
{
       window.scrollTo(0,0);
}
//}}}
//end JumpMacro code

//utility functions
//{{{
Popup.show = function(unused,slowly)
{
	var curr = Popup.stack[Popup.stack.length-1];
	var rootLeft = findPosX(curr.root);
	var rootTop = findPosY(curr.root);
	var rootHeight = curr.root.offsetHeight;
	var popupLeft = rootLeft;
	var popupTop = rootTop + rootHeight;
	var popupWidth = curr.popup.offsetWidth;
	var winWidth = findWindowWidth();
        if (isChild(curr.root,'hoverMenu'))
              var x = config.hoverMenu.settings.x;
        else
              var x = 0;
	if(popupLeft + popupWidth+x > winWidth)
		popupLeft = winWidth - popupWidth -x;
        if (isChild(curr.root,'hoverMenu'))
  	        {curr.popup.style.right = x + "px";}
        else
                curr.popup.style.left = popupLeft + "px";
	curr.popup.style.top = popupTop + "px";
	curr.popup.style.display = "block";
	addClass(curr.root,"highlight");
	if(config.options.chkAnimate)
		anim.startAnimating(new Scroller(curr.popup,slowly));
	else
		window.scrollTo(0,ensureVisible(curr.popup));
}

window.isChild = function(e,parentId) {
        while (e != null) {
                var parent = document.getElementById(parentId);
                if (parent == e) return true;
                e = e.parentNode;
                }
        return false;
};
//}}}

/***
|Name:|InstantTimestampPlugin|
|Description:|A handy way to insert timestamps in your tiddler content|
|Version:|1.0.10 ($Rev: 3646 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2008-02-27 02:34:38 +1000 (Wed, 27 Feb 2008) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#InstantTimestampPlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird <simon.baird@gmail.com>|
|License:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TheBSDLicense|
!!Usage
If you enter {ts} in your tiddler content (without the spaces) it will be replaced with a timestamp when you save the tiddler. Full list of formats:
* {ts} or {t} -> timestamp
* {ds} or {d} -> datestamp
* !ts or !t at start of line -> !!timestamp
* !ds or !d at start of line -> !!datestamp
(I added the extra ! since that's how I like it. Remove it from translations below if required)
!!Notes
* Change the timeFormat and dateFormat below to suit your preference.
* See also http://mptw2.tiddlyspot.com/#AutoCorrectPlugin
* You could invent other translations and add them to the translations array below.
***/
//{{{

config.InstantTimestamp = {

	// adjust to suit
	timeFormat: 'DD/0MM/YY 0hh:0mm',
	dateFormat: 'DD/0MM/YY',

	translations: [
		[/^!ts?$/img,  "'!!{{ts{'+now.formatString(config.InstantTimestamp.timeFormat)+'}}}'"],
		[/^!ds?$/img,  "'!!{{ds{'+now.formatString(config.InstantTimestamp.dateFormat)+'}}}'"],

		// thanks Adapted Cat
		[/\{ts?\}(?!\}\})/ig,"'{{ts{'+now.formatString(config.InstantTimestamp.timeFormat)+'}}}'"],
		[/\{ds?\}(?!\}\})/ig,"'{{ds{'+now.formatString(config.InstantTimestamp.dateFormat)+'}}}'"]
		
	],

	excludeTags: [
		"noAutoCorrect",
		"noTimestamp",
		"html",
		"CSS",
		"css",
		"systemConfig",
		"systemConfigDisabled",
		"zsystemConfig",
		"Plugins",
		"Plugin",
		"plugins",
		"plugin",
		"javascript",
		"code",
		"systemTheme",
		"systemPalette"
	],

	excludeTiddlers: [
		"StyleSheet",
		"StyleSheetLayout",
		"StyleSheetColors",
		"StyleSheetPrint"
		// more?
	]

}; 

TiddlyWiki.prototype.saveTiddler_mptw_instanttimestamp = TiddlyWiki.prototype.saveTiddler;
TiddlyWiki.prototype.saveTiddler = function(title,newTitle,newBody,modifier,modified,tags,fields,clearChangeCount,created) {

	tags = tags ? tags : []; // just in case tags is null
	tags = (typeof(tags) == "string") ? tags.readBracketedList() : tags;
	var conf = config.InstantTimestamp;

	if ( !tags.containsAny(conf.excludeTags) && !conf.excludeTiddlers.contains(newTitle) ) {

		var now = new Date();
		var trans = conf.translations;
		for (var i=0;i<trans.length;i++) {
			newBody = newBody.replace(trans[i][0], eval(trans[i][1]));
		}
	}

	// TODO: use apply() instead of naming all args?
	return this.saveTiddler_mptw_instanttimestamp(title,newTitle,newBody,modifier,modified,tags,fields,clearChangeCount,created);
}

// you can override these in StyleSheet 
setStylesheet(".ts,.ds { font-style:italic; }","instantTimestampStyles");

//}}}

Newpapers - Rocky Mtn News out, Chronicle desperate losing a million a week...buyer? Who?
sf gate one of ten top in country
5% on net from paper


pop under/interstitial/ commercial in video/flashing annoying....

people who like the feel of the paper

Newsday's subscription content

Unions helping? Managing


dave...17....shelly 18...

19 internet better

Internet better...

Day of paper is gone...feel of riding of a horse.....

who's going to put the content on there...5%

27 top ten SFGate

29 comes from somewhere...

Cutting paper delivery

Already lots less local news

38...man on perception digi music

every time paper tried to charge, gave up on it

40 better ads...print on demand

42 porn leads the way

A controversial known for his work allowing post-menopausal women to have children has claimed in an interview to have who are now living in eastern Europe. 
"I helped give birth to three children with the human cloning technique," Severino Antinori, a prominent gynaecologist, told Oggi weekly in an interview to appear Wednesday. 

"It involved two boys and a girl who are nine years old today. They were born healthy and they are in excellent health now." 

He did not provide proof of his claims, but said cells from the three fathers, who were sterile, allowed the cloning to be carried out. 

The women's egg cells were impregnated in a laboratory through a method called "nuclear transfer," he said. 

Antinori, who became famous after allowing a 63-year-old woman to have a child in 1994, said "respect for the families' privacy does not allow me to go further." 

He added that the method used was "an improvement" over the technique used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996. 

Reminded by the journalist that such cloning is prohibited in heavily Catholic Italy, the doctor said he preferred to "speak of innovative therapies" or "genetic recoding" rather than cloning. 

Two weeks ago, Antinori sparked controversy by announcing that he would artificially impregnate a woman whose husband is in an irreversible coma following a brain tumour. 

It would be the first procedure of its kind in Italy if successful. 



Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published

By Don Behm of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Mar. 3, 2009 12:48 p.m.

West Bend - Jackson police arrested the same man for drunken driving three times in February, including separate arrests on two consecutive days, Police Chief Jed Dolnick said Tuesday.

On Monday, Washington County Circuit Judge James Muehlbauer ordered Michael H. Kijowski Jr., 39, to post a total of $1,000 cash bond as a condition of his release from jail on the three charges and to maintain absolute sobriety. He left the jail Monday but will be returned to custody if he violates the sobriety order, authorities said.

Kijowski was convicted of first offense operating a vehicle while intoxicated in 2008, so the recent arrests could add second, third and fourth drunken driving offenses to his record if he is convicted of each of the charges.

The public was lucky that Kijowski did not collide with other vehicles or strike pedestrians during the three incidents, Dolnick said. A Jackson officer met Kijowski Tuesday morning regarding his pending eviction from an apartment and confirmed he was sober at the time.

"Wisconsin law makes it difficult to keep such people off the highways," Dolnick said.

Wisconsin is the only state that doesn't treat a first drunken driving offense as a crime.

According to a criminal complaint, on Feb. 11, several motorists on U.S. Highway 45 dialed 911 to complain about a possibly impaired driver exiting the freeway at state Highway 60 in Jackson shortly after 12:30 p.m.

Jackson police intercepted Kijowski near his Ridgeway Drive apartment after an officer observed his vehicle "rolling through a stop sign," Dolnick said. Kijowski failed field sobriety tests and his blood-alcohol level was .22, or nearly three times the state limit of .08, according to the complaint.

The next day, Feb. 12, a clerk in the liquor store at Hanson's Piggly Wiggly in Jackson called police around 4:40 p.m. to complain of a possibly intoxicated driver who had been in the store, according to the complaint.

The clerk refused to sell beer to Kijowski because he appeared to be drunk, and the man drove away from the store, Dolnick said.

Police arrested Kijowski at his apartment. He refused to participate in field sobriety tests, and his blood-alcohol level was .29, according to the complaint.

On Feb. 23, an officer observed a car being driven erratically on Main St., and the vehicle was stopped around 4:20 p.m. at the intersection of Hunters Road and Jackson Drive in the village, the complaint says.

Kijowski failed field sobriety tests, and his preliminary blood-alcohol level was .22, according to the complaint.

Kijowski had been living in an apartment on Ridgeway Drive in Jackson at the time of the February arrests. He is being evicted and plans to move to Oak Creek to live with a relative, according to court records.

By Stephanie Brien
Journal Times
Thursday, March 5, 2009 10:11 PM CST

RACINE — As it turns out the bank bailout isn’t really a bailout, at least that is the way Johnson Bank officials feel.

Johnson Bank announced Thursday that it will not accept $100 million in federal funds from the Troubled Assets Relief Program launched in October, intended to help build capital and increase the flow of financing.

“Contrary to the perception some have that this is a bailout, I think to the contrary, this is capital that is rather expensive,” said Richard Hansen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson Financial Group.

The cost of paying the money back is too high, with too many regulations attached, and the company doesn’t need it, Hansen said.

Basically, the government wanted to buy $100 million in stock and sell it back in five years at the future value, plus other factors, Hansen said. He said the money may have cost the company as much as $11 million per year, when combining interest, appreciated value of stock and the elimination of certain tax discounts. Then, once the company entered into the agreement, he said, the government could change the agreement at any time.

“At these terms and at these costs, that was not a bailout. The government will make a lot of money on it,” Hansen said.

They put a lot of thought into the decision, Hansen said, but even if they would have accepted the money it would have been hard to keep funds liquid to repay the federal government in five years.

On top of that, Hansen was also concerned accepting the money could paint a negative picture of the company.

“The public perception of, is it fair, is it right, is very weighing,” Hansen said. “The impact that it might have had on our brand was concerning.”

The $100 million would have allowed Johnson Bank to make more loans, Hansen said, but he said the bank already had capital that it is lending out now. He said the total number of loans the bank is giving out is not as high as past years mostly because fewer people and business don’t want to borrow right now. But, from December to February, the bank has made more loans for home mortgages than it has at any other time in the history of the bank, he said.

Johnson Bank is the part of Johnson Financial Group, one of the locally-based Johnson family of companies.

/***
|Name:|LessBackupsPlugin|
|Description:|Intelligently limit the number of backup files you create|
|Version:|3.0.1 ($Rev: 2320 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2007-06-18 22:37:46 +1000 (Mon, 18 Jun 2007) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#LessBackupsPlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird|
|Email:|simon.baird@gmail.com|
|License:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TheBSDLicense|
!!Description
You end up with just backup one per year, per month, per weekday, per hour, minute, and second.  So total number won't exceed about 200 or so. Can be reduced by commenting out the seconds/minutes/hours line from modes array
!!Notes
Works in IE and Firefox only.  Algorithm by Daniel Baird. IE specific code by by Saq Imtiaz.
***/
//{{{

var MINS  = 60 * 1000;
var HOURS = 60 * MINS;
var DAYS  = 24 * HOURS;

if (!config.lessBackups) {
	config.lessBackups = {
		// comment out the ones you don't want or set config.lessBackups.modes in your 'tweaks' plugin
		modes: [
			["YYYY",  365*DAYS], // one per year for ever
			["MMM",   31*DAYS],  // one per month
			["ddd",   7*DAYS],   // one per weekday
			//["d0DD",  1*DAYS],   // one per day of month
			["h0hh",  24*HOURS], // one per hour
			["m0mm",  1*HOURS],  // one per minute
			["s0ss",  1*MINS],   // one per second
			["latest",0]         // always keep last version. (leave this).
		]
	};
}

window.getSpecialBackupPath = function(backupPath) {

	var now = new Date();

	var modes = config.lessBackups.modes;

	for (var i=0;i<modes.length;i++) {

		// the filename we will try
		var specialBackupPath = backupPath.replace(/(\.)([0-9]+\.[0-9]+)(\.html)$/,
				'$1'+now.formatString(modes[i][0]).toLowerCase()+'$3')

		// open the file
		try {
			if (config.browser.isIE) {
				var fsobject = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
				var fileExists  = fsobject.FileExists(specialBackupPath);
				if (fileExists) {
					var fileObject = fsobject.GetFile(specialBackupPath);
					var modDate = new Date(fileObject.DateLastModified).valueOf();
				}
			}
			else {
				netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege("UniversalXPConnect");
				var file = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/local;1"].createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsILocalFile);
				file.initWithPath(specialBackupPath);
				var fileExists = file.exists();
				if (fileExists) {
					var modDate = file.lastModifiedTime;
				}
			}
		}
		catch(e) {
			// give up
			return backupPath;
		}

		// expiry is used to tell if it's an 'old' one. Eg, if the month is June and there is a
		// June file on disk that's more than an month old then it must be stale so overwrite
		// note that "latest" should be always written because the expiration period is zero (see above)
		var expiry = new Date(modDate + modes[i][1]);
		if (!fileExists || now > expiry)
			return specialBackupPath;
	}
}

// hijack the core function
window.getBackupPath_mptw_orig = window.getBackupPath;
window.getBackupPath = function(localPath) {
	return getSpecialBackupPath(getBackupPath_mptw_orig(localPath));
}

//}}}

/***
|''Name:''|LoadRemoteFileThroughProxy (previous LoadRemoteFileHijack)|
|''Description:''|When the TiddlyWiki file is located on the web (view over http) the content of [[SiteProxy]] tiddler is added in front of the file url. If [[SiteProxy]] does not exist "/proxy/" is added. |
|''Version:''|1.1.0|
|''Date:''|mar 17, 2007|
|''Source:''|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#LoadRemoteFileHijack|
|''Author:''|BidiX (BidiX (at) bidix (dot) info)|
|''License:''|[[BSD open source license|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#%5B%5BBSD%20open%20source%20license%5D%5D ]]|
|''~CoreVersion:''|2.2.0|
***/
//{{{
version.extensions.LoadRemoteFileThroughProxy = {
 major: 1, minor: 1, revision: 0, 
 date: new Date("mar 17, 2007"), 
 source: "http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#LoadRemoteFileThroughProxy"};

if (!window.bidix) window.bidix = {}; // bidix namespace
if (!bidix.core) bidix.core = {};

bidix.core.loadRemoteFile = loadRemoteFile;
loadRemoteFile = function(url,callback,params)
{
 if ((document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "http") && (url.substr(0,4) == "http")){ 
 url = store.getTiddlerText("SiteProxy", "/proxy/") + url;
 }
 return bidix.core.loadRemoteFile(url,callback,params);
}
//}}}

MPTW is a distribution or edition of TiddlyWiki that includes a standard TiddlyWiki core packaged with some plugins designed to improve usability and provide a better way to organise your information. For more information see http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/.

The University of Wisconsin-store last year for selling outdated ice cream and other food safety and quality issues, according to her dismissal letter.

The manager, Eileen Karre, claims she was unfairly let go and is appealing to get her job back.

The personnel dispute casts a negative light on the university's Babcock Dairy Store, a campus institution familiar to generations of dairy lovers in the region.

The store is named for the late Stephen Babcock, a professor who invented a test in 1890 to measure milk's fat content. The university established the nation's first dairy school after his discovery.

The store sells milk, cheese and ice cream made in a dairy plant operated by the Department of Food Science. Students and parents routinely stop in for cones and sundaes. Tour groups come to see ice cream made and taste flavors named for campus bigwigs, including men's basketball coach Bo Ryan (Bo's Express). Its cheese boxes are popular Christmas gifts shipped throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The store is a $500,000 annual business. But documents obtained by The Associated Press paint an ugly picture of its management in recent years.

Karre had worked there since 1987. According to her July 1 termination letter, she was fired for selling ice cream past its expiration date and other actions that jeopardized products' quality and food safety.

Bill Klein, manager of the dairy plant, said the ice cream was safe because it remained frozen. But he said leaving ice cream older than two weeks in the dipping cabinet hurts its quality and is against policy. "We really pride ourselves on quality here," he said.

Karre didn't keep the store clean and failed to prevent incidents in which meat was kept at an unsafe temperature and dirty drapes touched cheese served to customers, the letter said.

"Your negligent performance has potential for creating food safety issues and a deterioration of the reputation of the Babcock Dairy Store, which cannot be put at risk," university human resources official Linda Heideman Nigbor wrote.

Karre, 61, said in documents appealing her firing that the store passed health inspections and her supervisors found trivial violations to justify getting rid of her. The state's Equal Rights Division is investigating her claims that her dismissal was based on her age and gender, which the university denies.

"Someone who is 60, who has 20 years with the university, would have to be very stupid to do all the things they said I did," she said in a brief phone interview. "This was a set up."

Karre blamed any problems on a large number of customers, part-time student workers who lacked proper training, freezers that malfunctioned and quality issues during production. She said she tasted the ice cream herself to determine whether it was edible rather than relying on expiration dates.

"All the so-called outdated and unmarked ice creams were tasted by me and they were in good shape - except for the sherbets being too soft and one ice cream flavor being iffy," she wrote. "I had (workers) throw those out."

She recalled rushing to serve thousands of cones and sundaes to busloads of school children.

"Yes, the caramel might drip overnight, the cone dispenser might not be closed, there might be a little clutter and dust around, but none of those schools cared as long as we tried and were successful at getting them out on time," she wrote.

The university considered Karre's performance good in the years after she was promoted to manager in 1998 but said it started to deteriorate in 2007, documents show.

She was reprimanded three times and suspended for five days in 2007 and 2008 for violating university rules. That included calling a co-worker a name during a meeting, sending a threatening e-mail and requiring two Asian students who worked there to wear name tags because she said they looked too much alike.

Karre wrote the latter discipline was unfair because, "I told the truth that I couldn't tell the Asians apart." Other workers couldn't either, she said.

The records show Karre had difficulty getting along with colleagues. She blasted student workers who "don't have cognitive abilities" or know how to "ring out a rag" during a disciplinary hearing.

In documents, Karre said a store employee showed pornography to two student workers and was rude to customers. The worker was not fired despite her attempts, she said.

Klein and other university officials declined to comment on her claims, citing the pending investigation.

In another incident, Karre failed to have ice cream delivered to a meeting involving high-level university officials. Some of them weren't happy; Karre's termination letter mentions the incident.

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<<newTiddler label:'AutoDate Tiddler' title:' '
tag:'nx'
tag:{{new Date().formatString("YYYYMMDD")}} 
>>


]
[[MainMenu]]

will voluntarily remove the toxic chemical bisphenol A from their products in the U.S. as part of an agreement with three states.

The move involves six major plastic baby bottle makers that were asked to take the step last October by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the attorneys general in Delaware and New Jersey.

Blumenthal applauded the action but said national legislation is needed to ban the chemical from all products used by infants and children. For instance, the chemical also is used to line the inside of formula cans.

"Voluntary BPA bans from baby bottles are good, but not good enough and must lead to complete prohibition," Blumenthal said. "BPA in baby products can perilously leach into liquid, threatening pernicious and lasting health damage to infants."

BPA is a chemical that mimics the hormone estrogen and can disrupt the body's hormonal system.

Several hundred studies have been published in the past few years on BPA's effects. While studies paid for by chemical makers minimize concern for the chemical, most independent studies have found harm.

BPA is used to make thousands of household products, including the lining inside metal cans. The chemical has been linked to heart disease and diabetes in humans. It has been found to interfere with chemotherapy for breast cancer patients. Animal studies have linked it to cancer, obesity, hyperactivity and reproductive failures.

The six bottle makers are Avent, Disney First Years, Gerber, Dr. Brown's, Playtex and Evenflo. Those six manufacturers represent the vast majority of the baby bottle market.

The action by the bottle makers was a good first step, but voluntary action won't solve the problem, said Peter Myers, executive director of Environmental Health Sciences.

"BPA's uses, and thus exposures, are too widespread," he said. "We need the FDA to do an honest job evaluating the science that's already available, and then to act on it. That's not happening now."

The American Chemistry Council, a trade group, said a safety assessment done by the FDA found that "an adequate margin of safety exists for BPA at current levels of exposure from food contact uses, for infants and adults."

"Similar conclusions recently have been reached by authorities in Europe and Japan," said council spokesman Steve Hentges.

Hentges said council member companies that manufacture and use BPA are committed to providing products that protect public health and safety, especially for children

McNuggets "Emergency"
Floridian called 911 three times over McDonald's chicken shortage
 MARCH 3--Angered that her local McDonald's was out of Chicken McNuggets, a Florida woman called 911 three times to report the fast food "emergency." Latreasa Goodman, 27, last Saturday called police to complain that a cashier--citing a McDonald's all sales are final policy--would not give her a refund. When cops responded to the restaurant, Goodman told them, "This is an emergency. If I would have known they didn't have McNuggets, I wouldn't have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble, but I don't want one." Goodman noted, "I called 911 because I couldn't get a refund, and I wanted my McNuggets," according to the below Fort Pierce Police Department report. That logic, however, did not keep cops from citing Goodman for misusing the 911 system. Even after being issued a misdemeanor citation, Goodman contended, "this is an emergency, my McNuggets are an emergency." The McDonald's devotee is seen at right in a mug shot snapped after a previous encounter with police. Last month, a Florida man was arrested after he called 911 to complain about his displeasure with a Burger King combo meal. (2 pages) 

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Name: MptwBlack
Background: #000
Foreground: #fff
PrimaryPale: #333
PrimaryLight: #555
PrimaryMid: #888
PrimaryDark: #aaa
SecondaryPale: #111
SecondaryLight: #222
SecondaryMid: #555
SecondaryDark: #888
TertiaryPale: #222
TertiaryLight: #666
TertiaryMid: #888
TertiaryDark: #aaa
Error: #300

This is in progress. Help appreciated.

Name: MptwBlue
Background: #fff
Foreground: #000
PrimaryPale: #cdf
PrimaryLight: #57c
PrimaryMid: #114
PrimaryDark: #012
SecondaryPale: #ffc
SecondaryLight: #fe8
SecondaryMid: #db4
SecondaryDark: #841
TertiaryPale: #eee
TertiaryLight: #ccc
TertiaryMid: #999
TertiaryDark: #666
Error: #f88

/***
|Name:|MptwConfigPlugin|
|Description:|Miscellaneous tweaks used by MPTW|
|Version:|1.0 ($Rev: 3646 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2008-02-27 02:34:38 +1000 (Wed, 27 Feb 2008) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#MptwConfigPlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird <simon.baird@gmail.com>|
|License:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#MptwConfigPlugin|
!!Note: instead of editing this you should put overrides in MptwUserConfigPlugin
***/
//{{{
var originalReadOnly = readOnly;
var originalShowBackstage = showBackstage;

config.options.chkHttpReadOnly = false; 		// means web visitors can experiment with your site by clicking edit
readOnly = false;								// needed because the above doesn't work any more post 2.1 (??)
showBackstage = true;							// show backstage for same reason

config.options.chkInsertTabs = true;    		// tab inserts a tab when editing a tiddler
config.views.wikified.defaultText = "";			// don't need message when a tiddler doesn't exist
config.views.editor.defaultText = "";			// don't need message when creating a new tiddler 

config.options.chkSaveBackups = true;			// do save backups
config.options.txtBackupFolder = 'twbackup';	// put backups in a backups folder

config.options.chkAutoSave = (window.location.protocol == "file:"); // do autosave if we're in local file

config.mptwVersion = "2.5.2";

config.macros.mptwVersion={handler:function(place){wikify(config.mptwVersion,place);}};

if (config.options.txtTheme == '')
	config.options.txtTheme = 'MptwTheme';

// add to default GettingStarted
config.shadowTiddlers.GettingStarted += "\n\nSee also [[MPTW]].";

// add select theme and palette controls in default OptionsPanel
config.shadowTiddlers.OptionsPanel = config.shadowTiddlers.OptionsPanel.replace(/(\n\-\-\-\-\nAlso see AdvancedOptions)/, "{{select{<<selectTheme>>\n<<selectPalette>>}}}$1");

// these are used by ViewTemplate
config.mptwDateFormat = 'DD/MM/YY';
config.mptwJournalFormat = 'Journal DD/MM/YY';

//}}}

Name: MptwGreen
Background: #fff
Foreground: #000
PrimaryPale: #9b9
PrimaryLight: #385
PrimaryMid: #031
PrimaryDark: #020
SecondaryPale: #ffc
SecondaryLight: #fe8
SecondaryMid: #db4
SecondaryDark: #841
TertiaryPale: #eee
TertiaryLight: #ccc
TertiaryMid: #999
TertiaryDark: #666
Error: #f88

Name: MptwRed
Background: #fff
Foreground: #000
PrimaryPale: #eaa
PrimaryLight: #c55
PrimaryMid: #711
PrimaryDark: #500
SecondaryPale: #ffc
SecondaryLight: #fe8
SecondaryMid: #db4
SecondaryDark: #841
TertiaryPale: #eee
TertiaryLight: #ccc
TertiaryMid: #999
TertiaryDark: #666
Error: #f88

|Name|MptwRounded|
|Description|Mptw Theme with some rounded corners (Firefox only)|
|ViewTemplate|MptwTheme##ViewTemplate|
|EditTemplate|MptwTheme##EditTemplate|
|PageTemplate|MptwTheme##PageTemplate|
|StyleSheet|##StyleSheet|

!StyleSheet
/*{{{*/

[[MptwTheme##StyleSheet]]

.tiddler,
.sliderPanel,
.button,
.tiddlyLink,
.tabContents
{ -moz-border-radius: 1em; }

.tab {
	-moz-border-radius-topleft: 0.5em;
	-moz-border-radius-topright: 0.5em;
}
#topMenu {
	-moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 2em;
	-moz-border-radius-bottomright: 2em;
}

/*}}}*/

Name: MptwSmoke
Background: #fff
Foreground: #000
PrimaryPale: #aaa
PrimaryLight: #777
PrimaryMid: #111
PrimaryDark: #000
SecondaryPale: #ffc
SecondaryLight: #fe8
SecondaryMid: #db4
SecondaryDark: #841
TertiaryPale: #eee
TertiaryLight: #ccc
TertiaryMid: #999
TertiaryDark: #666
Error: #f88

|Name|MptwStandard|
|Description|Mptw Theme with the default TiddlyWiki PageLayout and Styles|
|ViewTemplate|MptwTheme##ViewTemplate|
|EditTemplate|MptwTheme##EditTemplate|

Name: MptwTeal
Background: #fff
Foreground: #000
PrimaryPale: #B5D1DF
PrimaryLight: #618FA9
PrimaryMid: #1a3844
PrimaryDark: #000
SecondaryPale: #ffc
SecondaryLight: #fe8
SecondaryMid: #db4
SecondaryDark: #841
TertiaryPale: #f8f8f8
TertiaryLight: #bbb
TertiaryMid: #999
TertiaryDark: #888
Error: #f88

|Name|MptwTheme|
|Description|Mptw Theme including custom PageLayout|
|PageTemplate|##PageTemplate|
|ViewTemplate|##ViewTemplate|
|EditTemplate|##EditTemplate|
|StyleSheet|##StyleSheet|

http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#MptwTheme ($Rev: 1829 $)

!PageTemplate
<!--{{{-->
<div class='header' macro='gradient vert [[ColorPalette::PrimaryLight]] [[ColorPalette::PrimaryMid]]'>
	<div class='headerShadow'>
		<span class='siteTitle' refresh='content' tiddler='SiteTitle'></span>&nbsp;
		<span class='siteSubtitle' refresh='content' tiddler='SiteSubtitle'></span>
	</div>
	<div class='headerForeground'>
		<span class='siteTitle' refresh='content' tiddler='SiteTitle'></span>&nbsp;
		<span class='siteSubtitle' refresh='content' tiddler='SiteSubtitle'></span>
	</div>
</div>
<!-- horizontal MainMenu -->
<div id='topMenu' refresh='content' tiddler='MainMenu'></div>
<!-- original MainMenu menu -->
<!-- <div id='mainMenu' refresh='content' tiddler='MainMenu'></div> -->
<div id='sidebar'>
	<div id='sidebarOptions' refresh='content' tiddler='SideBarOptions'></div>
	<div id='sidebarTabs' refresh='content' force='true' tiddler='SideBarTabs'></div>
</div>
<div id='displayArea'>
	<div id='messageArea'></div>
	<div id='tiddlerDisplay'></div>
</div>
<!--}}}-->

!ViewTemplate
<!--{{{-->
[[MptwTheme##ViewTemplateToolbar]]

<div class="tagglyTagged" macro="tags"></div>

<div class='titleContainer'>
	<span class='title' macro='view title'></span>
	<span macro="miniTag"></span>
</div>

<div class='subtitle'>
	(updated <span macro='view modified date {{config.mptwDateFormat?config.mptwDateFormat:"MM/0DD/YY"}}'></span>
	by <span macro='view modifier link'></span>)
	<!--
	(<span macro='message views.wikified.createdPrompt'></span>
	<span macro='view created date {{config.mptwDateFormat?config.mptwDateFormat:"MM/0DD/YY"}}'></span>)
	-->
</div>

<div macro="showWhen tiddler.tags.containsAny(['css','html','pre','systemConfig']) && !tiddler.text.match('{{'+'{')">
	<div class='viewer'><pre macro='view text'></pre></div>
</div>
<div macro="else">
	<div class='viewer' macro='view text wikified'></div>
</div>

<div class="tagglyTagging" macro="tagglyTagging"></div>

<!--}}}-->

!ViewTemplateToolbar
<!--{{{-->
<div class='toolbar'>
	<span macro="showWhenTagged systemConfig">
		<span macro="toggleTag systemConfigDisable . '[[disable|systemConfigDisable]]'"></span>
	</span>
	<span macro="showWhenTagged systemTheme"><span macro="applyTheme"></span></span>
	<span macro="showWhenTagged systemPalette"><span macro="applyPalette"></span></span>
	<span macro="showWhen tiddler.tags.contains('css') || tiddler.title == 'StyleSheet'"><span macro="refreshAll"></span></span>
	<span style="padding:1em;"></span>
	<span macro='toolbar closeTiddler closeOthers +editTiddler deleteTiddler > fields syncing permalink references jump'></span> <span macro='newHere label:"new here"'></span>
	<span macro='newJournalHere {{config.mptwJournalFormat?config.mptwJournalFormat:"MM/0DD/YY"}}'></span>
</div>
<!--}}}-->

!EditTemplate
<!--{{{-->
<div class="toolbar" macro="toolbar +saveTiddler saveCloseTiddler closeOthers -cancelTiddler cancelCloseTiddler deleteTiddler"></div>
<div class="title" macro="view title"></div>
<div class="editLabel">Title</div><div class="editor" macro="edit title"></div>
<div macro='annotations'></div>
<div class="editLabel">Content</div><div class="editor" macro="edit text"></div>
<div class="editLabel">Tags</div><div class="editor" macro="edit tags"></div>
<div class="editorFooter"><span macro="message views.editor.tagPrompt"></span><span macro="tagChooser"></span></div>
<!--}}}-->

!StyleSheet
/*{{{*/

/* a contrasting background so I can see where one tiddler ends and the other begins */
body {
	background: [[ColorPalette::TertiaryLight]];
}

/* sexy colours and font for the header */
.headerForeground {
	color: [[ColorPalette::PrimaryPale]];
}
.headerShadow, .headerShadow a {
	color: [[ColorPalette::PrimaryMid]];
}

/* separate the top menu parts */
.headerForeground, .headerShadow {
	padding: 1em 1em 0;
}

.headerForeground, .headerShadow {
	font-family: 'Trebuchet MS' sans-serif;
	font-weight:bold;
}
.headerForeground .siteSubtitle {
	color: [[ColorPalette::PrimaryLight]];
}
.headerShadow .siteSubtitle {
	color: [[ColorPalette::PrimaryMid]];
}

/* make shadow go and down right instead of up and left */
.headerShadow {
	left: 1px;
	top: 1px;
}

/* prefer monospace for editing */
.editor textarea, .editor input {
	font-family: 'Consolas' monospace;
	background-color:[[ColorPalette::TertiaryPale]];
}


/* sexy tiddler titles */
.title {
	font-size: 250%;
	color: [[ColorPalette::PrimaryLight]];
	font-family: 'Trebuchet MS' sans-serif;
}

/* more subtle tiddler subtitle */
.subtitle {
	padding:0px;
	margin:0px;
	padding-left:1em;
	font-size: 90%;
	color: [[ColorPalette::TertiaryMid]];
}
.subtitle .tiddlyLink {
	color: [[ColorPalette::TertiaryMid]];
}

/* a little bit of extra whitespace */
.viewer {
	padding-bottom:3px;
}

/* don't want any background color for headings */
h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
	background-color: transparent;
	color: [[ColorPalette::Foreground]];
}

/* give tiddlers 3d style border and explicit background */
.tiddler {
	background: [[ColorPalette::Background]];
	border-right: 2px [[ColorPalette::TertiaryMid]] solid;
	border-bottom: 2px [[ColorPalette::TertiaryMid]] solid;
	margin-bottom: 1em;
	padding:1em 2em 2em 1.5em;
}

/* make options slider look nicer */
#sidebarOptions .sliderPanel {
	border:solid 1px [[ColorPalette::PrimaryLight]];
}

/* the borders look wrong with the body background */
#sidebar .button {
	border-style: none;
}

/* this means you can put line breaks in SidebarOptions for readability */
#sidebarOptions br {
	display:none;
}
/* undo the above in OptionsPanel */
#sidebarOptions .sliderPanel br {
	display:inline;
}

/* horizontal main menu stuff */
#displayArea {
	margin: 1em 15.7em 0em 1em; /* use the freed up space */
}
#topMenu br {
	display: none;
}
#topMenu {
	background: [[ColorPalette::PrimaryMid]];
	color:[[ColorPalette::PrimaryPale]];
}
#topMenu {
	padding:2px;
}
#topMenu .button, #topMenu .tiddlyLink, #topMenu a {
	margin-left: 0.5em;
	margin-right: 0.5em;
	padding-left: 3px;
	padding-right: 3px;
	color: [[ColorPalette::PrimaryPale]];
	font-size: 115%;
}
#topMenu .button:hover, #topMenu .tiddlyLink:hover {
	background: [[ColorPalette::PrimaryDark]];
}

/* make 2.2 act like 2.1 with the invisible buttons */
.toolbar {
	visibility:hidden;
}
.selected .toolbar {
	visibility:visible;
}

/* experimental. this is a little borked in IE7 with the button 
 * borders but worth it I think for the extra screen realestate */
.toolbar { float:right; }

/* fix for TaggerPlugin. from sb56637. improved by FND */
.popup li .tagger a {
   display:inline;
}

/* makes theme selector look a little better */
#sidebarOptions .sliderPanel .select .button {
  padding:0.5em;
  display:block;
}
#sidebarOptions .sliderPanel .select br {
	display:none;
}

/* make it print a little cleaner */
@media print {
	#topMenu {
		display: none ! important;
	}
	/* not sure if we need all the importants */
	.tiddler {
		border-style: none ! important;
		margin:0px ! important;
		padding:0px ! important;
		padding-bottom:2em ! important;
	}
	.tagglyTagging .button, .tagglyTagging .hidebutton {
		display: none ! important;
	}
	.headerShadow {
		visibility: hidden ! important;
	}
	.tagglyTagged .quickopentag, .tagged .quickopentag {
		border-style: none ! important;
	}
	.quickopentag a.button, .miniTag {
		display: none ! important;
	}
}

/* get user styles specified in StyleSheet */
[[StyleSheet]]

/*}}}*/

|Name|MptwTrim|
|Description|Mptw Theme with a reduced header to increase useful space|
|ViewTemplate|MptwTheme##ViewTemplate|
|EditTemplate|MptwTheme##EditTemplate|
|StyleSheet|MptwTheme##StyleSheet|
|PageTemplate|##PageTemplate|

!PageTemplate
<!--{{{-->

<!-- horizontal MainMenu -->
<div id='topMenu' macro='gradient vert [[ColorPalette::PrimaryLight]] [[ColorPalette::PrimaryMid]]'>
<span refresh='content' tiddler='SiteTitle' style="padding-left:1em;font-weight:bold;"></span>:
<span refresh='content' tiddler='MainMenu'></span>
</div>
<div id='sidebar'>
	<div id='sidebarOptions'>
		<div refresh='content' tiddler='SideBarOptions'></div>
		<div style="margin-left:0.1em;"
			macro='slider chkTabSliderPanel SideBarTabs {{"tabs \u00bb"}} "Show Timeline, All, Tags, etc"'></div>
	</div>
</div>
<div id='displayArea'>
	<div id='messageArea'></div>
	<div id='tiddlerDisplay'></div>
</div>

For upgrading. See [[ImportTiddlers]].
URL: http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/upgrade.html

/***
|Description:|A place to put your config tweaks so they aren't overwritten when you upgrade MPTW|
See http://www.tiddlywiki.org/wiki/Configuration_Options for other options you can set. In some cases where there are clashes with other plugins it might help to rename this to zzMptwUserConfigPlugin so it gets executed last.
***/
//{{{

// example: set your preferred date format
//config.mptwDateFormat = 'MM/0DD/YY';
//config.mptwJournalFormat = 'Journal MM/0DD/YY';

// example: set the theme you want to start with
//config.options.txtTheme = 'MptwRoundTheme';

// example: switch off autosave, switch on backups and set a backup folder
//config.options.chkSaveBackups = true;
//config.options.chkAutoSave = false;
//config.options.txtBackupFolder = 'backups';

// uncomment to disable 'new means new' functionality for the new journal macro
//config.newMeansNewForJournalsToo = false;

//}}}

Eight months after his release from prison in 2000 for killing his wife, Richard Wiley married a popular secretary at the Wilmette church he had attended since childhood—despite misgivings from the minister who performed the ceremony.

Kathryn Motes met Wiley at the First Presbyterian Church late that spring. By Sept. 16, 2000, they were married.

"I shared concerns because of the speed in which they got married following his release from prison," said Rev. Cynthia Zolk of Rockford, who worked at a Waukegan church where Motes worked as a student pastor.

Zolk said she had been worried Wiley hadn't had time to adjust to society after serving 13 years in prison. Motes, she said, told her, " 'I have played out every scenario that I can possibly think of, and I think I can deal with it.' "

Video
Related links
Wilmette murder-suicide investigation Photos
Friends of slain Wilmette teen gather online
Wilmette man in murder, suicide had a violent history
Police news conference Video
Murder-suicide in Wilmette Video After an argument, Wiley shot Kathryn Wiley-Motes in the home where they lived sometime after 2:30 p.m. Saturday, using her 17-year-old son's replica Civil War musket, police said Tuesday. Then Wiley shot the teen, Christopher Motes.

Wiley, 54, spent more than a day alone with the bodies, penning a rambling, 40-page note that declared he would never go back to prison and expressing "hints of remorse," Deputy Police Chief Brian King said.

After sawing off the barrel, Wiley shot himself Sunday evening, officials said. The bodies were found Monday afternoon by police when Wiley-Motes didn't show up for work at the church.

As investigators continued to piece together what happened inside the home in the 800 block of Greenleaf Avenue that is owned by First Presbyterian, friends and family tried to make sense of the shootings.

By all accounts, Wiley-Motes, 50, never worried about her husband's conviction for the 1985 murder of a previous wife, Ruth, who was stabbed 23 times.

"There is this piece, you do have to wonder, did she think she could help him?" Zolk said. "When you have that kind of pastoral spirit, let's face it, we're caregivers, we're helpers."

Wiley-Motes' son also took an instant liking to Wiley, calling him "Dad" almost immediately, Zolk said. Christopher, who had never known his biological father, participated in the wedding.

As the years passed, no one noticed anything disturbing in the relationship, friends said.

"I asked [Kathryn] repeatedly if she felt safe," said First Presbyterian's pastor, Sarah Sarchet Butter, who added that the old murder was known to many members in the congregation. "The reply was always, 'Yes.' "

Many were eager to help him start life anew, the pastor said.

Deborah MacDuff of McHenry relived a nightmare when she learned Wiley had killed again. She was a close friend of Ruth Wiley and had planned to go out with her the evening of the murder that sent Richard Wiley to prison. "You think you get over it," said MacDuff, 49. "I heard this on the news this morning and I freaked. He did it again."

Ruth Wiley's family had hoped never to hear about the killer again. "It almost destroyed our family when he murdered my sister," said Ruth's brother, Paul Marabotti III, 43, who lives in the Chicago area.

The grief spread across the North Shore on Tuesday as a group of New Trier High School seniors who shared an advisory class with Christopher Motes gathered to remember their classmate.

One student laid a bundle of white roses on the desk where Motes sat every morning, teacher Robert Levin said. For nearly two hours they swapped stories about the teen who loved history and bass guitar and spoke up for what he believed.

Motes belonged to the school's military history club and often participated in Civil War re-enactments around the region.

The teen had joined the Boy Scouts as a 5th grader and was working toward Eagle Scout.

Charlie Lettner, 18, and Mike Daugerdas, 18, met Chris Motes during a summer program at Highcrest Middle School in Wilmette, and the trio had remained close.

They played a final basketball game during lunch Thursday at the school's Winnetka campus.

"He was laughing," Lettner said. "I was laughing. Everyone was just playing a game. That's the last time we saw him."

Tribune reporters Jeff Long, Hal Dardick, Andrew Wang and Steve Schmadeke contributed to this report.

Fri Mar 6, 2009 8:22pm IST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+]
1 of 1Full SizeBy Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience Friday "never waste a good crisis," and highlighted the opportunity of rebuilding economies in a greener, less energy-intensive way.

Highlighting Europe's unease the day after Russia warned that gas flows via Ukraine might be halted, she also condemned the use of energy as a political lever.

Clinton told young Europeans at the European Parliament that global economic turmoil provided a fresh opening. "Never waste a good crisis ... Don't waste it when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security," she said.

Europe sees the United States as a crucial ally in global climate talks in Copenhagen in December, after President Barack Obama signaled a new urgency in tackling climate change, in stark contrast to his predecessor George W. Bush.

Europe has already laid out plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions to about a fifth below 1990 levels in the next decade, while Obama has proposed a major shift toward renewable energy and a cap and trade system for CO2 emissions.

But with many countries in the grip of a punishing recession, some question whether businesses can muster the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to cut carbon emissions.

"Certainly the United States has been negligent in living up to its responsibilities," said Clinton, on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state.

"This is a propitious time ... we can actually begin to demonstrate our willingness to confront this."

Clinton said she was encouraged by China's stance on climate change during a visit there last month.

"It is very important that at the beginning of this effort, China has expressed a willingness to participate," she told reporters. "They realize they've just surpassed the unfortunate record that we just held of being the largest carbon emitter."

POLITICAL LEVER

Many politicians argue that the economic crisis, energy security issues and climate change can all be dealt with in a "New Green Deal," replacing high-carbon infrastructure with green alternatives and simultaneously creating millions of jobs.

"There is no doubt in my mind the energy security and climate change crises, which I view as being together, not separate, must be dealt with," Clinton added.

She attacked the use of energy as a political weapon, echoing Europe's worries after repeated spats between Russia and gas transit country Ukraine hit EU supplies in recent years.

"We are ... troubled by using energy as a tool of intimidation," she said. "We think that's not in the interest of creating a better and better functioning energy system."

Clinton is set to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for dinner in Geneva in the hope of improving relations after a post-Cold War low during Bush's presidency.

The latest cuts to Russian gas exports in January forced the closure of factories, hospitals and schools in Eastern Europe in mid-winter.

A new row between Ukraine and Russia appeared to have been averted Thursday after state-owned Gazprom said Ukraine settled payments at the heart of the disagreement.

But European leaders were rattled by the warning of cuts to supply by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

(Additional reporting by Anne Jolis; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Charles Dick)

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Funding may end Bush administration demonstration project

Democrats in Congress appear to be moving toward a carefully worded ban that would shut down the Bush administration demonstration project allowing 100 Mexican trucking companies to run long-haul rigs throughout the nation, in direct competition with U.S. truckers.

The issue has been rancorous over the past two years as Bush administration Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters has fought off repeated efforts by Congress to confine Mexican trucks to a narrow 20-mile commercial area north of the southern border.

In what appears to be a major victory for Teamster boss James Hoffa, the Obama administration is working closely with Senate Democrats, including Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, to toughen up language of an amendment Dorgan successfully had inserted in the DOT fiscal year 2008 appropriations bill.

Toughening the language in this year's appropriation bill to keep Mexican trucks south of the border appears to be one of the Obama administration's clear efforts to reverse the Bush administration project in ways that reward organized labor for their support of candidate Obama's presidential campaign last year.

The move comes as a blow to "free trade" advocates in the Republican Party who have pushed for new ways to open the Mexican border and increase opportunities for trade between the two countries.

"Shutting down the border is the right thing to do," Hoffa said in a press release. "There is no guarantee that trucks or drivers from Mexico are safe. Until there is, dangerous Mexican trucks should not be allowed to drive freely on our highways."

The contention of opponents to the Mexican truck demonstration project has been that Mexican trucks and truck drivers do not reliably meet U.S. standards.

As WND reported, in a contentious Senate hearing last March, Dorgan got Peters to admit that Mexican driers were being designated at the border as "proficient in English" even though they could explain U.S. traffic signs only in Spanish.

In the tense hearing, Dorgan accused Peters of being "arrogant" and in reckless disregard of a congressional vote to stop the Mexican trucking demonstration project by taking funds away.

As WND reported, opposition in the House was led by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore, who in Sept. 2007, accused the Bush administration of having a "stealth plan" to allow Mexican long-haul rigs on U.S. roads.

"This administration [of President George W. Bush] is hell-bent on opening our borders," DeFazio said, "but has failed to require that Mexican drivers and trucks meet the same safety and security standards as U.S. drivers and trucks."

Previously, Peters had argued the wording of the Dorgan amendment did not prohibit the Transportation Department from stopping a Mexican truck demonstration project that DOT has already begun, even if the measure prohibited DOT from starting any new Mexican truck demonstration project.

Section 136 of the Obama administration's omnibus appropriations bill's transportation more clearly bill states, "None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available under this Act may be used, directly or indirectly, to establish, continue, promote, or in any way permit a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexican-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico."

Despite strong congressional opposition, the Department of Transportation under President Bush had announced a plan to extend the Mexican truck demonstration project for another two years, in an attempt to force the incoming Obama administration to comply with a departmental decision that had been finalized before Obama Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood took office.

About Dr. Jerome R. Corsi:

Jerome R. Corsi is a staff reporter for WND. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972 and has written many books and articles, including his best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and "The Late Great USA." Other books include "Showdown with Nuclear Iran," "Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil," which he co-authored with WND columnist Craig. R. Smith, and "Atomic Iran."

A financial crisis is the worst time to change the foundations of American capitalism.Article
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By MICHAEL J. BOSKIN
It's hard not to see the continued sell-off on Wall Street and the growing fear on Main Street as a product, at least in part, of the realization that our new president's policies are designed to radically re-engineer the market-based U.S. economy, not just mitigate the recession and financial crisis.

Martin KozlowskiThe illusion that Barack Obama will lead from the economic center has quickly come to an end. Instead of combining the best policies of past Democratic presidents -- John Kennedy on taxes, Bill Clinton on welfare reform and a balanced budget, for instance -- President Obama is returning to Jimmy Carter's higher taxes and Mr. Clinton's draconian defense drawdown.

Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents -- from George Washington to George W. Bush -- combined. It reduces defense spending to a level not sustained since the dangerous days before World War II, while increasing nondefense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And it would raise taxes to historically high levels (again, relative to GDP). And all of this before addressing the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs.

To be fair, specific parts of the president's budget are admirable and deserve support: increased means-testing in agriculture and medical payments; permanent indexing of the alternative minimum tax and other tax reductions; recognizing the need for further financial rescue and likely losses thereon; and bringing spending into the budget that was previously in supplemental appropriations, such as funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The specific problems, however, far outweigh the positives. First are the quite optimistic forecasts, despite the higher taxes and government micromanagement that will harm the economy. The budget projects a much shallower recession and stronger recovery than private forecasters or the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office are projecting. It implies a vast amount of additional spending and higher taxes, above and beyond even these record levels. For example, it calls for a down payment on universal health care, with the additional "resources" needed "TBD" (to be determined).

Mr. Obama has bravely said he will deal with the projected deficits in Medicare and Social Security. While reform of these programs is vital, the president has shown little interest in reining in the growth of real spending per beneficiary, and he has rejected increasing the retirement age. Instead, he's proposed additional taxes on earnings above the current payroll tax cap of $106,800 -- a bad policy that would raise marginal tax rates still further and barely dent the long-run deficit.

Increasing the top tax rates on earnings to 39.6% and on capital gains and dividends to 20% will reduce incentives for our most productive citizens and small businesses to work, save and invest -- with effective rates higher still because of restrictions on itemized deductions and raising the Social Security cap. As every economics student learns, high marginal rates distort economic decisions, the damage from which rises with the square of the rates (doubling the rates quadruples the harm). The president claims he is only hitting 2% of the population, but many more will at some point be in these brackets.

As for energy policy, the president's cap-and-trade plan for CO2 would ensnare a vast network of covered sources, opening up countless opportunities for political manipulation, bureaucracy, or worse. It would likely exacerbate volatility in energy prices, as permit prices soar in booms and collapse in busts. The European emissions trading system has been a dismal failure. A direct, transparent carbon tax would be far better.

Moreover, the president's energy proposals radically underestimate the time frame for bringing alternatives plausibly to scale. His own Energy Department estimates we will need a lot more oil and gas in the meantime, necessitating $11 trillion in capital investment to avoid permanently higher prices.

The president proposes a large defense drawdown to pay for exploding nondefense outlays -- similar to those of Presidents Carter and Clinton -- which were widely perceived by both Republicans and Democrats as having gone too far, leaving large holes in our military. We paid a high price for those mistakes and should not repeat them.

The president's proposed limitations on the value of itemized deductions for those in the top tax brackets would clobber itemized charitable contributions, half of which are by those at the top. This change effectively increases the cost to the donor by roughly 20% (to just over 72 cents from 60 cents per dollar donated). Estimates of the responsiveness of giving to after-tax prices range from a bit above to a little below proportionate, so reductions in giving will be large and permanent, even after the recession ends and the financial markets rebound.

A similar effect will exacerbate tax flight from states like California and New York, which rely on steeply progressive income taxes collecting a large fraction of revenue from a small fraction of their residents. This attack on decentralization permeates the budget -- e.g., killing the private fee-for-service Medicare option -- and will curtail the experimentation, innovation and competition that provide a road map to greater effectiveness.

The pervasive government subsidies and mandates -- in health, pharmaceuticals, energy and the like -- will do a poor job of picking winners and losers (ask the Japanese or Europeans) and will be difficult to unwind as recipients lobby for continuation and expansion. Expanding the scale and scope of government largess means that more and more of our best entrepreneurs, managers and workers will spend their time and talent chasing handouts subject to bureaucratic diktats, not the marketplace needs and wants of consumers.

Our competitors have lower corporate tax rates and tax only domestic earnings, yet the budget seeks to restrict deferral of taxes on overseas earnings, arguing it drives jobs overseas. But the academic research (most notably by Mihir Desai, C. Fritz Foley and James Hines Jr.) reveals the opposite: American firms' overseas investments strengthen their domestic operations and employee compensation.

New and expanded refundable tax credits would raise the fraction of taxpayers paying no income taxes to almost 50% from 38%. This is potentially the most pernicious feature of the president's budget, because it would cement a permanent voting majority with no stake in controlling the cost of general government.

From the poorly designed stimulus bill and vague new financial rescue plan, to the enormous expansion of government spending, taxes and debt somehow permanently strengthening economic growth, the assumptions underlying the president's economic program seem bereft of rigorous analysis and a careful reading of history.

Unfortunately, our history suggests new government programs, however noble the intent, more often wind up delivering less, more slowly, at far higher cost than projected, with potentially damaging unintended consequences. The most recent case, of course, was the government's meddling in the housing market to bring home ownership to low-income families, which became a prime cause of the current economic and financial disaster.

On the growth effects of a large expansion of government, the European social welfare states present a window on our potential future: standards of living permanently 30% lower than ours. Rounding off perceived rough edges of our economic system may well be called for, but a major, perhaps irreversible, step toward a European-style social welfare state with its concomitant long-run economic stagnation is not.

Mr. Boskin is a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush.

By CAROL E. LEE | 3/5/09 1:04 PM EST Text Size:

The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks.
Photo: AP

President Barack Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his TelePrompter.

The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks.

Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in the White House’s stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute prepared remarks.

Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual — not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small.

After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was training to wean himself off of the device while on vacation in Hawaii. But no such luck.

His use of the teleprompter makes work tricky for the television crews and photographers trying to capture an image of the president announcing a new Cabinet secretary or housing plan without a pane of glass blocking his face. And it is a startling sight to see such sleek, modern technology set against the mahogany doors and Bohemian crystal chandeliers in the East Room or the marble columns of the Grand Foyer.

See Also
Dueling Dems have Obama in earmark jam
GOP tries to lure Dems on housing
Reports: Obama goes gray!
“It’s just something presidents haven’t done,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidential historian who has held court in the White House since December 1975. “It’s jarring to the eye. In a way, it stands in the middle between the audience and the president because his eye is on the teleprompter.”

Just how much of a crutch the teleprompter has become for Obama was on sharp display during his latest commerce secretary announcement. The president spoke from a teleprompter in the ornate Indian Treaty Room for a few minutes. Then Gov. Gary Locke stepped to the podium and pulled out a piece of paper for reference.

The president’s teleprompter also elicited some uncomfortable laughter after he announced Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his choice for Health and Human Services secretary. “Kathy,” Obama said, turning the podium over to Sebelius, who waited at the microphone for an awkward few seconds while the teleprompters were lowered to the floor and the television cameras rolled.

Obama has relied on a teleprompter through even the shortest announcements and when repeating the same lines on his economic stimulus plan that he's been saying for months — whereas past presidents have mostly worked off of notes on the podium except during major speeches, such as the State of the Union.

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The Big Dither
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LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMy SpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkBy PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 5, 2009
Last month, in his big speech to Congress, President Obama argued for bold steps to fix America’s dysfunctional banks. “While the cost of action will be great,” he declared, “I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater, for it could result in an economy that sputters along for not months or years, but perhaps a decade.”

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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

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Many analysts agree. But among people I talk to there’s a growing sense of frustration, even panic, over Mr. Obama’s failure to match his words with deeds. The reality is that when it comes to dealing with the banks, the Obama administration is dithering. Policy is stuck in a holding pattern.

Here’s how the pattern works: first, administration officials, usually speaking off the record, float a plan for rescuing the banks in the press. This trial balloon is quickly shot down by informed commentators.

Then, a few weeks later, the administration floats a new plan. This plan is, however, just a thinly disguised version of the previous plan, a fact quickly realized by all concerned. And the cycle starts again.

Why do officials keep offering plans that nobody else finds credible? Because somehow, top officials in the Obama administration and at the Federal Reserve have convinced themselves that troubled assets, often referred to these days as “toxic waste,” are really worth much more than anyone is actually willing to pay for them — and that if these assets were properly priced, all our troubles would go away.

Thus, in a recent interview Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, tried to make a distinction between the “basic inherent economic value” of troubled assets and the “artificially depressed value” that those assets command right now. In recent transactions, even AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities have sold for less than 40 cents on the dollar, but Mr. Geithner seems to think they’re worth much, much more.

And the government’s job, he declared, is to “provide the financing to help get those markets working,” pushing the price of toxic waste up to where it ought to be.

What’s more, officials seem to believe that getting toxic waste properly priced would cure the ills of all our major financial institutions. Earlier this week, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, was asked about the problem of “zombies” — financial institutions that are effectively bankrupt but are being kept alive by government aid. “I don’t know of any large zombie institutions in the U.S. financial system,” he declared, and went on to specifically deny that A.I.G. — A.I.G.! — is a zombie.

This is the same A.I.G. that, unable to honor its promises to pay off other financial institutions when bonds default, has already received $150 billion in aid and just got a commitment for $30 billion more.

The truth is that the Bernanke-Geithner plan — the plan the administration keeps floating, in slightly different versions — isn’t going to fly.

Take the plan’s latest incarnation: a proposal to make low-interest loans to private investors willing to buy up troubled assets. This would certainly drive up the price of toxic waste because it would offer a heads-you-win, tails-we-lose proposition. As described, the plan would let investors profit if asset prices went up but just walk away if prices fell substantially.

But would it be enough to make the banking system healthy? No.

Think of it this way: by using taxpayer funds to subsidize the prices of toxic waste, the administration would shower benefits on everyone who made the mistake of buying the stuff. Some of those benefits would trickle down to where they’re needed, shoring up the balance sheets of key financial institutions. But most of the benefit would go to people who don’t need or deserve to be rescued.

And this means that the government would have to lay out trillions of dollars to bring the financial system back to health, which would, in turn, both ensure a fierce public outcry and add to already serious concerns about the deficit. (Yes, even strong advocates of fiscal stimulus like yours truly worry about red ink.) Realistically, it’s just not going to happen.

So why has this zombie idea — it keeps being killed, but it keeps coming back — taken such a powerful grip? The answer, I fear, is that officials still aren’t willing to face the facts. They don’t want to face up to the dire state of major financial institutions because it’s very hard to rescue an essentially insolvent bank without, at least temporarily, taking it over. And temporary nationalization is still, apparently, considered unthinkable.

But this refusal to face the facts means, in practice, an absence of action. And I share the president’s fears: inaction could result in an economy that sputters along, not for months or years, but for a decade or more.

 
By Don Behm of the Journal Sentinel 

Posted: Mar. 2, 2009

Milwaukee-area pediatrician Kyle O. Mounts was sentenced Monday to 18 months of probation after pleading no contest to a charge of lewd and lascivious behavior in a Grafton Department store.

Mounts, 49, exposed himself to a child in the toy aisle of the Grafton Target Department store last October.

On Monday, he also pleaded no contest to a charge of disorderly conduct involving the same incident.

Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy found Mounts guilty of both charges and ordered him to serve concurrent sentences of 18 months of probation on each charge.

Malloy also ordered Mounts to continue outpatient counseling and prohibited Mounts from having contact with anyone younger than 18 outside of his family.

Mounts is a neonatologist who lives in Cedarburg.

U.S. RATTLED AS MEXICO DRUG WAR BLEEDS OVER BORDER

Conducting interviews on this topic is the founder and president of the Minuteman Project Jim Gilchrist.

(Reuters) Armed kidnappers snatch victims from cars and even a local shopping mall across the Phoenix valley for ransom, turning the sun-baked city into the "kidnap capital" of the United States.

Violence of this kind is common in Mexico where drug cartel abductions and executions are a daily feature of a raging drug war that claimed 6,000 lives south of the border last year.

But U.S. authorities now fear that violent crime is beginning to bleed over the porous Mexico border and take hold here.

"The fight in Mexico is about domination of the smuggling corridors and those corridors don't stop at the border," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.

Execution style murders, violent home invasions, and a spiraling kidnap rate in Phoenix -- where police reported an average of one abduction a day last year linked to Mexican crime -- are not the only examples along the border.

In southern California, police have investigated cases of Americans abducted by armed groups tied to the Tijuana drug trade. One involved a businesswoman and her teenage daughter snatched in San Diego last year and held to ransom south of the border.

In south Texas, a live hand grenade traced back to a Mexican cartel stash was tossed onto the pool table of a bar frequented by off-duty police officers in January. The pin was left in it and the assailant fled.

COPING WITH SPILLOVER

Mexican traffickers have always been violent, but the death toll has soared since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006 and sent tens of thousands of troops to fight the country's powerful cocaine cartels.

Soldiers have fought pitched battles with drug gangs in several Mexican towns and overwhelmed police officers have fled municipal forces the length of the border. In many cases, police officers have been paid off by the drug gangs or even joined them.

In a sign of an increasingly desperate struggle to rein in the violence, Calderon this week ordered 5,000 more troops and federal police to Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The cartels have killed 250 people in Ciudad Juarez in the past month, forced the police chief to resign, and shut down the airport with bomb threats.

The struggle by outgunned Mexican authorities to contain the violence was highlighted for Arizona state police last November, when Mexican police officers pinned down in a raging gun battle in Nogales, Sonora, reached out to them with an urgent request for more bullets.

While U.S. authorities stress they have not seen anything like the kind of street battles and horrific beheadings that are now common in Mexico, they are already taking action to curb was has become known as "overspill".

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he wants 1,000 troops to guard the border. The state's Attorney General Greg Abbott is backing legislation to crack down on money laundering and human, drug and weapons trafficking through the state by the warring Gulf and Sinaloa cartels.

Lawmakers in Arizona heard testimony on border violence last week from police and prosecutors, who are seeking more robust measures to seize smugglers' assets, as well as cracking down harder on gunrunning to Mexico.

PLANNING FOR THE WORST

Washington has stepped up support for Calderon, pledging to give Mexico helicopters, surveillance aircraft, inspection equipment and police training under a $1.4 billion plan to beat the cartels in Mexico and Central America.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano -- a former Arizona governor -- told a Congressional hearing last week she was focused on curbing the southbound traffic in guns that are being used to arm the violent cartels.

In a measure of that commitment, a Phoenix gun dealer goes on trial next week on charges he sold hundreds of weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, to smugglers knowing they would send them to a powerful cartel in Sinaloa state on Mexico's Pacific coast.

As the spiraling drug violence shakes Mexican cities and towns along the U.S. border, U.S. Senate lawmakers announced last week they would hold two hearings to assess the ability of U.S. security forces to deal with the rise in crime on the U.S. side.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the homeland security governmental affairs committee, said the panel would assess border security programs already in place and review whether federal, state and local authorities are ready to respond to any serious spillover of the Mexican drugs war.

For the sheriff of Hidalgo County, in south Texas, where the live grenade was thrown into a bar in Pharr, possibly by street gang members armed by a Mexican cartel, that renewed attention to the war on his doorstep can only be welcome.

"It's the first time we've had a hand grenade attack," Guadalupe Trevino told Reuters. "I believe there's more out there that we need to find."

About your guest:

Jim Gilchrist founded the multi-ethnic Minuteman Project on Oct. 1, 2004, after years of frustrated efforts trying to get a neglectful U.S. government to simply enforce existing immigration laws.

Jim holds a B.A. in newspaper journalism, a B.S. in business administration, and an M.B.A. in taxation. He is a former newspaper reporter and a retired California CPA (Certified Public Accountant).

Jim is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and recipient of the Purple Heart award for wounds sustained while serving with an infantry unit in Vietnam, 1968 - 1969.

Mr. Gilchrist is a passionate defender of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and an avid supporter of law enforcement organizations. He has appeared on over 1000 radio and TV news and commentary shows in the past twelve months, and he believes he is only one of millions of 21st century minutemen / women / children who want the U.S. to remain governed by the "rule of law" and who want proactive enforcement of our national security protections and our immigration legal code.

Jim has lived in California since 1976 and currently resides in Aliso Viejo with his wife, Sandy.

###

/***
|Name:|PrettyDatesPlugin|
|Description:|Provides a new date format ('pppp') that displays times such as '2 days ago'|
|Version:|1.0 ($Rev: 3646 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2008-02-27 02:34:38 +1000 (Wed, 27 Feb 2008) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#PrettyDatesPlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird <simon.baird@gmail.com>|
|License:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TheBSDLicense|
!!Notes
* If you want to you can rename this plugin. :) Some suggestions: LastUpdatedPlugin, RelativeDatesPlugin, SmartDatesPlugin, SexyDatesPlugin.
* Inspired by http://ejohn.org/files/pretty.js
***/
//{{{
Date.prototype.prettyDate = function() {
	var diff = (((new Date()).getTime() - this.getTime()) / 1000);
	var day_diff = Math.floor(diff / 86400);

	if (isNaN(day_diff))      return "";
	else if (diff < 0)        return "in the future";
	else if (diff < 60)       return "just now";
	else if (diff < 120)      return "1 minute ago";
	else if (diff < 3600)     return Math.floor(diff/60) + " minutes ago";
	else if (diff < 7200)     return "1 hour ago";
	else if (diff < 86400)    return Math.floor(diff/3600) + " hours ago";
	else if (day_diff == 1)   return "Yesterday";
	else if (day_diff < 7)    return day_diff + " days ago";
	else if (day_diff < 14)   return  "a week ago";
	else if (day_diff < 31)   return Math.ceil(day_diff/7) + " weeks ago";
	else if (day_diff < 62)   return "a month ago";
	else if (day_diff < 365)  return "about " + Math.ceil(day_diff/31) + " months ago";
	else if (day_diff < 730)  return "a year ago";
	else                      return Math.ceil(day_diff/365) + " years ago";
}

Date.prototype.formatString_orig_mptw = Date.prototype.formatString;

Date.prototype.formatString = function(template) {
	return this.formatString_orig_mptw(template).replace(/pppp/,this.prettyDate());
}

// for MPTW. otherwise edit your ViewTemplate as required.
// config.mptwDateFormat = 'pppp (DD/MM/YY)'; 
config.mptwDateFormat = 'pppp'; 

//}}}

/***
|Name:|QuickOpenTagPlugin|
|Description:|Changes tag links to make it easier to open tags as tiddlers|
|Version:|3.0.1 ($Rev: 3861 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2008-03-08 10:53:09 +1000 (Sat, 08 Mar 2008) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#QuickOpenTagPlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird <simon.baird@gmail.com>|
|License:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TheBSDLicense|
***/
//{{{
config.quickOpenTag = {

	dropdownChar: (document.all ? "\u25bc" : "\u25be"), // the little one doesn't work in IE?

	createTagButton: function(place,tag,excludeTiddler) {
		// little hack so we can do this: <<tag PrettyTagName|RealTagName>>
		var splitTag = tag.split("|");
		var pretty = tag;
		if (splitTag.length == 2) {
			tag = splitTag[1];
			pretty = splitTag[0];
		}
		
		var sp = createTiddlyElement(place,"span",null,"quickopentag");
		createTiddlyText(createTiddlyLink(sp,tag,false),pretty);
		
		var theTag = createTiddlyButton(sp,config.quickOpenTag.dropdownChar,
                        config.views.wikified.tag.tooltip.format([tag]),onClickTag);
		theTag.setAttribute("tag",tag);
		if (excludeTiddler)
			theTag.setAttribute("tiddler",excludeTiddler);
    		return(theTag);
	},

	miniTagHandler: function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
		var tagged = store.getTaggedTiddlers(tiddler.title);
		if (tagged.length > 0) {
			var theTag = createTiddlyButton(place,config.quickOpenTag.dropdownChar,
                        	config.views.wikified.tag.tooltip.format([tiddler.title]),onClickTag);
			theTag.setAttribute("tag",tiddler.title);
			theTag.className = "miniTag";
		}
	},

	allTagsHandler: function(place,macroName,params) {
		var tags = store.getTags(params[0]);
		var filter = params[1]; // new feature
		var ul = createTiddlyElement(place,"ul");
		if(tags.length == 0)
			createTiddlyElement(ul,"li",null,"listTitle",this.noTags);
		for(var t=0; t<tags.length; t++) {
			var title = tags[t][0];
			if (!filter || (title.match(new RegExp('^'+filter)))) {
				var info = getTiddlyLinkInfo(title);
				var theListItem =createTiddlyElement(ul,"li");
				var theLink = createTiddlyLink(theListItem,tags[t][0],true);
				var theCount = " (" + tags[t][1] + ")";
				theLink.appendChild(document.createTextNode(theCount));
				var theDropDownBtn = createTiddlyButton(theListItem," " +
					config.quickOpenTag.dropdownChar,this.tooltip.format([tags[t][0]]),onClickTag);
				theDropDownBtn.setAttribute("tag",tags[t][0]);
			}
		}
	},

	// todo fix these up a bit
	styles: [
"/*{{{*/",
"/* created by QuickOpenTagPlugin */",
".tagglyTagged .quickopentag, .tagged .quickopentag ",
"	{ margin-right:1.2em; border:1px solid #eee; padding:2px; padding-right:0px; padding-left:1px; }",
".quickopentag .tiddlyLink { padding:2px; padding-left:3px; }",
".quickopentag a.button { padding:1px; padding-left:2px; padding-right:2px;}",
"/* extra specificity to make it work right */",
"#displayArea .viewer .quickopentag a.button, ",
"#displayArea .viewer .quickopentag a.tiddyLink, ",
"#mainMenu .quickopentag a.tiddyLink, ",
"#mainMenu .quickopentag a.tiddyLink ",
"	{ border:0px solid black; }",
"#displayArea .viewer .quickopentag a.button, ",
"#mainMenu .quickopentag a.button ",
"	{ margin-left:0px; padding-left:2px; }",
"#displayArea .viewer .quickopentag a.tiddlyLink, ",
"#mainMenu .quickopentag a.tiddlyLink ",
"	{ margin-right:0px; padding-right:0px; padding-left:0px; margin-left:0px; }",
"a.miniTag {font-size:150%;} ",
"#mainMenu .quickopentag a.button ",
"	/* looks better in right justified main menus */",
"	{ margin-left:0px; padding-left:2px; margin-right:0px; padding-right:0px; }", 
"#topMenu .quickopentag { padding:0px; margin:0px; border:0px; }",
"#topMenu .quickopentag .tiddlyLink { padding-right:1px; margin-right:0px; }",
"#topMenu .quickopentag .button { padding-left:1px; margin-left:0px; border:0px; }",
"/*}}}*/",
		""].join("\n"),

	init: function() {
		// we fully replace these builtins. can't hijack them easily
		window.createTagButton = this.createTagButton;
		config.macros.allTags.handler = this.allTagsHandler;
		config.macros.miniTag = { handler: this.miniTagHandler };
		config.shadowTiddlers["QuickOpenTagStyles"] = this.styles;
		store.addNotification("QuickOpenTagStyles",refreshStyles);
	}
}

config.quickOpenTag.init();

//}}}

By Paul Sloth
Journal Times
Thursday, March 5, 2009 12:38 PM CST

RACINE — One day after Horlick officials suspended Greg Morrissette, a starting point guard for the tournament-bound boys basketball team, Stanley McKenzie set out to get the suspension overturned.

He believes the 19-year-old’s punishment is too harsh.

McKenzie, an elder at Christian Faith Fellowship Church of Racine, hopes he can convince school and district officials to give Morrissette another chance by overturning his suspension. He wants to act quickly in order to get Morrissette reinstated before Saturday, the day the Rebels play their first game in the WIAA Division 1 boys basketball tournament.

“The kid had an opportunity. He had turned his life around. I believe that this is a hard break for that kid,” McKenzie said. “This is just flat-out wrong. This can’t happen to this kid, not at this time.”

Horlick Principal Angela Apmann suspended Morrissette the same day she learned of a nearly one-year-old drug possession charge. Apmann received an anonymous tip in the mail. Morrissette pleaded no contest to the possession charge in August.

McKenzie, whose son is a starter for the Park boys basketball team, has contacted Unified officials to see if there could be an alternative punishment for Morrissette.

McKenzie said he has contacted church leaders and hopes to get more support for his effort to get Horlick officials to reconsider their decision.

“I’m hoping it puts enough pressure on the athletic director to reconsider the decision. We’re dealing with a guy’s future,” McKenzie said.

McKenzie, who met Morrissette when he played for a local Christian basketball program, said the suspension at the end of his senior year could derail any hopes he might have had of being offered a scholarship to play college ball.

The district isn’t likely to overturn the decision.

School officials were simply following the district’s code of conduct for athletes when they suspended Morrissette from playing in the upcoming tournament, said Stephanie Hayden, Unified’s spokeswoman.

The fact that Morrissette won’t be playing in Horlick’s first tournament game makes him ineligible to play the rest of the tournament according to WIAA rules, Hayden said.

There was no talk Wednesday of reconsidering Morrissette’s suspension, Hayden said.

“Mr. Morrissettee knew he was convicted in August. He could have come forward at that point. Do I think the district acted too harshly? I don’t think we did,” Hayden said. “We have policies and procedures in place and it is up to our staff to uphold those.”

School and district officials, including Horlick’s boys basketball coach Jason Treutelaar and the school’s athletic director Jay Hammes, said they did not know about Morrissette’s conviction for misdemeanor possession.

Had officials known earlier, Morrissette would have sat out five games during Horlick’s regular season play, according to the district’s athlete code.

The district has an appeals process for student athletes who are suspended from playing. Officials had not been notified, as of Wednesday, that anyone planned to appeal Morrissette’s suspension.

Someone who answered Morrissette’s home phone on Wednesday said that his mother planned to meet with an attorney to consider what they might do.

/***
|Name:|RenameTagsPlugin|
|Description:|Allows you to easily rename or delete tags across multiple tiddlers|
|Version:|3.0 ($Rev: 5501 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2008-06-10 23:11:55 +1000 (Tue, 10 Jun 2008) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#RenameTagsPlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird <simon.baird@gmail.com>|
|License|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TheBSDLicense|
Rename a tag and you will be prompted to rename it in all its tagged tiddlers.
***/
//{{{
config.renameTags = {

	prompts: {
		rename: "Rename the tag '%0' to '%1' in %2 tidder%3?",
		remove: "Remove the tag '%0' from %1 tidder%2?"
	},

	removeTag: function(tag,tiddlers) {
		store.suspendNotifications();
		for (var i=0;i<tiddlers.length;i++) {
			store.setTiddlerTag(tiddlers[i].title,false,tag);
		}
		store.resumeNotifications();
		store.notifyAll();
	},

	renameTag: function(oldTag,newTag,tiddlers) {
		store.suspendNotifications();
		for (var i=0;i<tiddlers.length;i++) {
			store.setTiddlerTag(tiddlers[i].title,false,oldTag); // remove old
			store.setTiddlerTag(tiddlers[i].title,true,newTag);  // add new
		}
		store.resumeNotifications();
		store.notifyAll();
	},

	storeMethods: {

		saveTiddler_orig_renameTags: TiddlyWiki.prototype.saveTiddler,

		saveTiddler: function(title,newTitle,newBody,modifier,modified,tags,fields,clearChangeCount,created) {
			if (title != newTitle) {
				var tagged = this.getTaggedTiddlers(title);
				if (tagged.length > 0) {
					// then we are renaming a tag
					if (confirm(config.renameTags.prompts.rename.format([title,newTitle,tagged.length,tagged.length>1?"s":""])))
						config.renameTags.renameTag(title,newTitle,tagged);

					if (!this.tiddlerExists(title) && newBody == "")
						// dont create unwanted tiddler
						return null;
				}
			}
			return this.saveTiddler_orig_renameTags(title,newTitle,newBody,modifier,modified,tags,fields,clearChangeCount,created);
		},

		removeTiddler_orig_renameTags: TiddlyWiki.prototype.removeTiddler,

		removeTiddler: function(title) {
			var tagged = this.getTaggedTiddlers(title);
			if (tagged.length > 0)
				if (confirm(config.renameTags.prompts.remove.format([title,tagged.length,tagged.length>1?"s":""])))
					config.renameTags.removeTag(title,tagged);
			return this.removeTiddler_orig_renameTags(title);
		}

	},

	init: function() {
		merge(TiddlyWiki.prototype,this.storeMethods);
	}
}

config.renameTags.init();

//}}}

Call Them Irresponsible
Rewarding those who put the 'liar' in liar loans.

Article
more in Opinion »

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President Obama continues to insist that only "responsible families" will benefit from his foreclosure prevention program. Addressing Congress last week, Mr. Obama said his plan "won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford." Sorry, Mr. President. It's becoming increasingly obvious that your plan is going to help tens of thousands of borrowers who put the "liar" into liar loans.

Just listen to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair. In Congressional testimony last week, Mr. Bernanke compared many troubled borrowers to people who accidentally start fires by smoking in bed. For her part, Ms. Bair told public radio that it would be "simply impractical" to review old mortgage applications and try to distinguish between honest and dishonest borrowers. All of this moved the Associated Press to report that the President's "assurance Tuesday night that only the deserving will get help rang hollow."

Mortgage fraud exploded during the housing boom and appears to have continued even as home prices fall. In December the Mortgage Asset Research Institute reported that mortgage fraud increased 45% in the second quarter of 2008, compared to a year earlier. The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reports a similar rise for the full year ended in June of last year. A federal bailout of troubled loans will do nothing to discourage this trend.

But let's assume for the moment that most of the program's beneficiaries did tell the truth. Does that make them "responsible," as Mr. Obama says? Many borrowers are underwater, owing more on the mortgage than their home is worth. Declining home prices are of course a big reason. The other big reason is that many of them traded home equity for cash, in some cases several times, while taking on larger mortgages. To say that all troubled borrowers did cash-out refinancings and spent the money on kitchen remodeling, jet skis and trips to Cancun would be unfair. It would be equally unfair to taxpayers not to recognize how common such deals were during the bubble.

At the height of the housing boom, Americans were pulling $300 billion each year out of their home equity, according to research by James Kennedy of the Federal Reserve. Since 2005, cash-out refinancings have represented a third of all mortgage originations in the United States. Rod Dubitsky of Credit Suisse estimates that close to half of subprime mortgages were cash-out refis. Spending the winnings from the rise in home prices meant that borrowers were converting to more risky mortgages, typically with higher monthly payments. According to Freddie Mac, most of its refinancings have resulted in larger loan amounts in every quarter since the middle of 2004.

Is taking on more debt a sign of responsibility? The Obama plan focuses on subsidizing borrowers to reduce their debt-to-income ratio, but taxpayers might be more interested in another statistic. Call it the flat-screen-to-kidney-transplant ratio. Can the Administration report how many of the people due to receive tax dollars spent home equity on plasma TVs? When this figure is divided by the number who spent the money on medical care, then Mr. Obama can make his case on the facts.

He might also explain why he is creating still another borrower bailout, when the $300 billion Hope for Homeowners plan enacted last year has hardly gotten off the ground. Although that program, launched in October, appears to be an attractive option for borrowers and lenders, housing analysts are puzzled at the slow roll-out. There are likely several factors at work, not least management of the program by the efficiency experts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. We also wonder how many borrowers don't care for the requirement that they certify that their original mortgage applications were honest. Could it be that some "responsible families" will prefer the new Obama proposal because it lacks this requirement?

There is a moral hazard in rewarding bad decisions. But it's worse than that: The White House plan contains penalties for everyone else. The mortgage "cramdown," allowing bankruptcy judges to reduce the amount owed, can only make investors less willing to lend to future homebuyers.

Meanwhile, the politicians may claim that more generous refinancing by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will keep borrowers current and benefit everyone. But Fannie recently warned investors that its focus on foreclosure prevention "is likely to contribute to a further deterioration" in results. Since the Obama plan shovels another $100 billion each to Fan and Fred -- for a total commitment so far of $400 billion -- Fannie is talking to you.

By Journal Times staff
Thursday, March 5, 2009 6:52 PM CST


U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, joined two senators Wednesday in proposing to give the president power to smoke out legislators’ pet projects hidden in bills.

Ryan, a Republican whose district includes Racine County, joined Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in proposing the legislative line-item veto. Ryan introduced similar bills in two previous sessions.

Rather than a traditional veto, which forces the president to block an entire bill or let it through, this would allow President Barack Obama to send individual “earmarks” considered wasteful spending back to Congress for reconsideration. Unlike a traditional veto, which requires a two-thirds majority to override, Congress would only need a majority vote to keep an earmark in place.

Ryan pointed to a recent spending bill that provides $200,000 for tattoo removal and $250,000 for restoration of a tugboat as blatantly unnecessary spending. This tool would bring public embarrassment to legislators who try to sneak through unneeded projects, he said.

“In a recession, of all times, Congress should not be on this pork spending spree,” he said.

In news reports, other legislators argued that’s oversimplifying. For one, they said, tattoo removal is an integral part of an anti-crime program to put former gang members to work.

Ryan acknowledged many voters expect their representatives to bring home a piece of the pie.

“What happens is members of Congress abuse it,” he said.

Governors in most states including Wisconsin have variations of the line-item veto. President Bill Clinton used it in the 1990s before the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. The legislators said they adjusted to make sure this version would be allowed.

/***
|Name:|SaveCloseTiddlerPlugin|
|Description:|Provides two extra toolbar commands, saveCloseTiddler and cancelCloseTiddler|
|Version:|3.0 ($Rev: 5502 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2008-06-10 23:31:39 +1000 (Tue, 10 Jun 2008) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#SaveCloseTiddlerPlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird <simon.baird@gmail.com>|
|License:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TheBSDLicense|
To use these you must add them to the tool bar in your EditTemplate
***/
//{{{
merge(config.commands,{

	saveCloseTiddler: {
		text: 'done/close',
		tooltip: 'Save changes to this tiddler and close it',
		handler: function(ev,src,title) {
			var closeTitle = title;
			var newTitle = story.saveTiddler(title,ev.shiftKey);
			if (newTitle)
				closeTitle = newTitle;
			return config.commands.closeTiddler.handler(ev,src,closeTitle);
		}
	},

	cancelCloseTiddler: {
		text: 'cancel/close',
		tooltip: 'Undo changes to this tiddler and close it',
		handler: function(ev,src,title) {
			// the same as closeTiddler now actually
			return config.commands.closeTiddler.handler(ev,src,title);
		}
	}

});

//}}}

/***
|Name:|SelectThemePlugin|
|Description:|Lets you easily switch theme and palette|
|Version:|1.0.1 ($Rev: 3646 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2008-02-27 02:34:38 +1000 (Wed, 27 Feb 2008) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#SelectThemePlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird <simon.baird@gmail.com>|
|License:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TheBSDLicense|
!Notes
* Borrows largely from ThemeSwitcherPlugin by Martin Budden http://www.martinswiki.com/#ThemeSwitcherPlugin
* Theme is cookie based. But set a default by setting config.options.txtTheme in MptwConfigPlugin (for example)
* Palette is not cookie based. It actually overwrites your ColorPalette tiddler when you select a palette, so beware. 
!Usage
* {{{<<selectTheme>>}}} makes a dropdown selector
* {{{<<selectPalette>>}}} makes a dropdown selector
* {{{<<applyTheme>>}}} applies the current tiddler as a theme
* {{{<<applyPalette>>}}} applies the current tiddler as a palette
* {{{<<applyTheme TiddlerName>>}}} applies TiddlerName as a theme
* {{{<<applyPalette TiddlerName>>}}} applies TiddlerName as a palette
***/
//{{{

config.macros.selectTheme = {
	label: {
      		selectTheme:"select theme",
      		selectPalette:"select palette"
	},
	prompt: {
		selectTheme:"Select the current theme",
		selectPalette:"Select the current palette"
	},
	tags: {
		selectTheme:'systemTheme',
		selectPalette:'systemPalette'
	}
};

config.macros.selectTheme.handler = function(place,macroName)
{
	var btn = createTiddlyButton(place,this.label[macroName],this.prompt[macroName],this.onClick);
	// want to handle palettes and themes with same code. use mode attribute to distinguish
	btn.setAttribute('mode',macroName);
};

config.macros.selectTheme.onClick = function(ev)
{
	var e = ev ? ev : window.event;
	var popup = Popup.create(this);
	var mode = this.getAttribute('mode');
	var tiddlers = store.getTaggedTiddlers(config.macros.selectTheme.tags[mode]);
	// for default
	if (mode == "selectPalette") {
		var btn = createTiddlyButton(createTiddlyElement(popup,'li'),"(default)","default color palette",config.macros.selectTheme.onClickTheme);
		btn.setAttribute('theme',"(default)");
		btn.setAttribute('mode',mode);
	}
	for(var i=0; i<tiddlers.length; i++) {
		var t = tiddlers[i].title;
		var name = store.getTiddlerSlice(t,'Name');
		var desc = store.getTiddlerSlice(t,'Description');
		var btn = createTiddlyButton(createTiddlyElement(popup,'li'), name?name:t, desc?desc:config.macros.selectTheme.label['mode'], config.macros.selectTheme.onClickTheme);
		btn.setAttribute('theme',t);
		btn.setAttribute('mode',mode);
	}
	Popup.show();
	return stopEvent(e);
};

config.macros.selectTheme.onClickTheme = function(ev)
{
	var mode = this.getAttribute('mode');
	var theme = this.getAttribute('theme');
	if (mode == 'selectTheme')
		story.switchTheme(theme);
	else // selectPalette
		config.macros.selectTheme.updatePalette(theme);
	return false;
};

config.macros.selectTheme.updatePalette = function(title)
{
	if (title != "") {
		store.deleteTiddler("ColorPalette");
		if (title != "(default)")
			store.saveTiddler("ColorPalette","ColorPalette",store.getTiddlerText(title),
					config.options.txtUserName,undefined,"");
		refreshAll();
		if(config.options.chkAutoSave)
			saveChanges(true);
	}
};

config.macros.applyTheme = {
	label: "apply",
	prompt: "apply this theme or palette" // i'm lazy
};

config.macros.applyTheme.handler = function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
	var useTiddler = params[0] ? params[0] : tiddler.title;
	var btn = createTiddlyButton(place,this.label,this.prompt,config.macros.selectTheme.onClickTheme);
	btn.setAttribute('theme',useTiddler);
	btn.setAttribute('mode',macroName=="applyTheme"?"selectTheme":"selectPalette"); // a bit untidy here
}

config.macros.selectPalette = config.macros.selectTheme;
config.macros.applyPalette = config.macros.applyTheme;

config.macros.refreshAll = { handler: function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
	createTiddlyButton(place,"refresh","refresh layout and styles",function() { refreshAll(); });
}};

//}}}

dub

http://nxx.tiddlyspot.com

By Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel 

Posted: Mar. 5, 2009

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on residential properties in Wisconsin continues to increase, with subprime and adjustable-rate loans again accounting for most of the troubled mortgages.

But Wisconsin's worsening situation isn't as gloomy as the nation's overall housing picture.

The state delinquency rate was 6.41% during the quarter ending Dec. 31, an increase of 82 basis points from the quarter ending Nov. 30, according to information released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In addition, the rate of Wisconsin loans in foreclosure by the end of the quarter increased 25 basis points, to 2.82%.

Those rates are not seasonally adjusted, and delinquency rates normally show a sharp spike at the end of the year, the association said.

Subprime loans were again the leading culprit in the delinquency and foreclosure rate increases. But a larger number of prime mortgage loans were delinquent or in foreclosure - a sign that layoffs are affecting homeowners' ability to make home loan payments.

The delinquency rate for prime fixed-rate mortgage loans in Wisconsin increased 48 basis points, to 3.39%. For prime adjustable-rate mortgage loans, it increased 130 basis points, to 9.24%.

The delinquency rate for subprime fixed-rate loans increased 305 basis points, to 21.83%. For subprime adjustable-rate loans, it increased 355 basis points, to 26.81%.

The delinquency rates for Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs loans were 13.86% and 8.88%, respectively - up 110 basis points for FHA loans, and up 113 basis points for VA loans.

Foreclosure data
The same pattern occurred in foreclosures.

The rate of Wisconsin prime fixed-rate loans in foreclosure by the end of the quarter increased 17 basis points, to 1.02%. For prime adjustable-rate loans, it increased 108 basis points, to 6.63%.

The foreclosure rate for subprime fixed-rate loans increased 120 basis points, to 8.11%, while the rate for subprime adjustable-rate loans increased 69 basis points, to 22.84%.

The percentage of FHA loans in foreclosure increased 17 basis points, to 3.17%. The percentage of VA loans in foreclosure increased 65 basis points, to 2.93%.

Wisconsin ranked 35th in delinquencies and 20th in foreclosures started.

Wisconsin has 15% nonprime home loan borrowers, including subprime mortgages and FHA loans, compared with a national average of 19%.

The rising delinquency and foreclosure rates are having an effect on the Milwaukee area's home building industry, said Chellee Siewert, executive director of the Metropolitan Builders Association.

The ongoing drumbeat of bad news can erode the confidence of people who are considering building new homes, she said.

But the association's members say they've been seeing more people visiting model homes, Siewert said.

Nationally, a record 5.4 million American homeowners with mortgages, or nearly 12%, were delinquent or in foreclosure at the end of the fourth quarter, the association reported. That's up from 10% at the end of the third quarter, and up from 8% at the end of the year-earlier period.

"We're seeing increases in fixed-rate categories, and that's where the problems are coming from," said Jay Brinkmann, the Mortgage Bankers Association's chief economist. "The foreclosure picture is more clearly driven by the jobs market."

That trend highlights one of the biggest challenges confronting the Obama administration's mortgage relief plan launched this week. While the $75 billion plan could help change the loan terms or refinance up to 9 million homeowners, unemployed borrowers will have a hard time qualifying.

On Thursday, the Labor Department said new unemployment claims last week totaled 639,000, lower than expected but still at elevated levels. Factory orders also slipped for the sixth month in a row in January, the Commerce Department reported.

"There can be no doubt that employers continue to shed labor at a frightening pace, with no end in sight," Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a client note Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By Lindsay Fiori
Journal Times
Thursday, March 5, 2009 7:46 PM CST

RACINE — Stock market losses in state retirement funds could mean millions more in spending for area school districts.

To offset 2008 retirement investment losses of more than $26 billion, the state has internally projected total retirement contribution rates paid by school districts could almost double in the next five years.

“That’s really scary,” said David Hazen, chief financial officer for the Racine Unified School District. He said that if revenue caps remain the same, the only way for the district to come up with the additional money would be by cutting staff or other services.

The contribution rate increase would come from the state Department of Employee Trust Funds, which manages retirement and insurance benefit accounts for state employers. The department has internally projected that 2009’s retirement contribution rate of 10.4 percent of an employee’s pay could increase to 14.8 percent by 2014.

This increase is a projection based on investment returns in an economy that does not recover at all from 2008 stock market rates, according to Matt Stohr, department spokesman.

If implemented, such an increase would cost Racine Unified $17.4 million over the next five years. It would cost the Burlington Area School District $2.8 million over the next five years, according to estimates from the Wisconsin School Board Association, a nonprofit that describes itself as providing law, leadership and bargaining services to Wisconsin school boards.

These cost increases could mean school budget cuts in areas such as staff and classroom materials. It could also mean more referendums and higher property taxes, according to the school board association.

Burlington Area School District Business Manager Peter Smet said any increase in expenses would require rebalancing the budget, something they deal with on a regular basis.

State retirement contribution rates are set every June for the following year by the Deparment of Employee Trust Fund’s 13-person governing board.

“They will get together in June of this year to determine rates for 2010 and only for 2010,” Stohr said. “2010 is not even determined yet so to project 2014 is very premature.”

The board will likely increase 2010 contribution rates less than 1 percent. Retirement contributions are paid into the Wisconsin Retirement System, which includes two funds: the Core Fund and the Variable Fund.

School district workers whose employers are part of the Wisconsin Retirement System are automatically part of the Core Fund and can choose to participate in the Variable Fund. In 2008, final investment returns in the Core Fund dropped 26.2 percent while the Variable Fund decreased 39 percent, according to the Department of Employee Trust Funds.

“It’s never (been) required by the district to make up for market losses. This seems strange to me,” Hazen said. “People took their chances if they put money in the Variable (Fund) and lost money.”

By Neal Boortz @ March 5, 2009 8:40 AM Permalink | Comments (33) | TrackBacks (0)
Unless you haven't really been paying attention, you must realize by now that Obama's plans to increase taxes on every American by increasing the cost of energy in this country. We've been through this routine before. But now we have a new line from the Obama administration ...

According to tax cheat Timothy Geithner, oil and natural gas companies do not deserve tax breaks from the federal government because their businesses contribute to global warming. That's right .. our Treasury Tax Cheat believes in man-made global warming.

Unbelievable.

Geithner said to Congress, "We don't believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the production and use of sources of energy (like oil and gas) that are dramatically going to add to our climate change (problem). We don't think that's good economic policy and we think changing those incentives is good for the country."

Now what you are seeing here is exactly what I've been telling you to expect for years. The Democrats want their hands on every single possible penny the private sector produces. To do this they will promote this tired and discredited global warming dog squeeze as a reason to drain more money from energy companies.

As for Geithner .. he's a tax cheat. No ... that isn't strong enough. He's a damned tax cheat. He plotted to cheat on his taxes, then carried that plot through; and he was caught. Now he's our Treasury Secretary.

A tax cheat in charge of the IRS. Change you can believe in.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Neal Boortz @ March 5, 2009 8:34 AM Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)
Barack Obama released details of his plan to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. The good news is I have yet to find a provision that would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce the principal amount due under a mortgage loan. Maybe that's been dumped ... or maybe it comes later and under the radar. As it stands now mortgage modification will occur only if borrowers provide their most recent tax return and two pay stubs, as well as an "affidavit of financial hardship." In the affidavit, they have to cite the reasons behind their financial woes, like losing a job or some drop in income. Oh and by the way, mortgages for single-family properties that are worth more than $729,750 are excluded from the program. The borrower will also have to show that they exhausted all remedies in personal negotiations with the lender before they will be allowed in the bankruptcy court. That great symbol of government education, Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California, refers to this process as "going through all that mess."

We're told that the Obama administration's housing plan is intended to help 9 million struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure, but it leaves out tens of thousands of borrowers in the most battered housing markets who won't qualify because their homes have lost too much value.

The program detailed Wednesday offers refinanced mortgages or modified loans with lower monthly payments. The refinancing plan is limited to borrowers who owe up to 5 percent more than their home's current value. Loan modifications, supported by $75 billion in federal funding, are unlikely for severely "underwater" borrowers.

Amazing. I'm dumbstruck. There are provisions of this borrower bailout that actually making some sense here. And, yes .. I'll freely admit it when this administration does something even marginally right .. .but I don't expect to be kept busy with this task.

In the California cities of Stockton, Modesto and Merced, more than one out of every 10 homeowners with a mortgage won't qualify for any help because they owe more than 50 percent more than their house's current value, according to data from real-estate Web site Zillow.com. Fine .. turn these people into renters. Works for me. Time for some entrepreneur to go to these cities and build low-rent apartments. Oh, wait. Our country discourages entrepreneurship right now. Looks like Stockton, Modesto and Merced will become Section 8 havens.

The plan doesn't help homeowners in states "that are at the epicenter of the housing debacle," said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com." Cry me a river.

This document is a ~TiddlyWiki from tiddlyspot.com.  A ~TiddlyWiki is an electronic notebook that is great for managing todo lists, personal information, and all sorts of things.

@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //What now?// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ Before you can save any changes, you need to enter your password in the form below.  Then configure privacy and other site settings at your [[control panel|http://nxx.tiddlyspot.com/controlpanel]] (your control panel username is //nxx//).
<<tiddler TspotControls>>
See also GettingStarted.

@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Working online// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ You can edit this ~TiddlyWiki right now, and save your changes using the "save to web" button in the column on the right.

@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Working offline// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ A fully functioning copy of this ~TiddlyWiki can be saved onto your hard drive or USB stick.  You can make changes and save them locally without being connected to the Internet.  When you're ready to sync up again, just click "upload" and your ~TiddlyWiki will be saved back to tiddlyspot.com.

@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Help!// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ Find out more about ~TiddlyWiki at [[TiddlyWiki.com|http://tiddlywiki.com]].  Also visit [[TiddlyWiki.org|http://tiddlywiki.org]] for documentation on learning and using ~TiddlyWiki. New users are especially welcome on the [[TiddlyWiki mailing list|http://groups.google.com/group/TiddlyWiki]], which is an excellent place to ask questions and get help.  If you have a tiddlyspot related problem email [[tiddlyspot support|mailto:support@tiddlyspot.com]].

@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Enjoy :)// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ We hope you like using your tiddlyspot.com site.  Please email [[feedback@tiddlyspot.com|mailto:feedback@tiddlyspot.com]] with any comments or suggestions.

<<allTags excludeLists>>

<<tabs txtMoreTab "Tags" "All Tags" TabAllTags "Miss" "Missing tiddlers" TabMoreMissing "Orph" "Orphaned tiddlers" TabMoreOrphans "Shad" "Shadowed tiddlers" TabMoreShadowed>>

<<allTags excludeLists [a-z]>>

/***
|Name:|TagglyTaggingPlugin|
|Description:|tagglyTagging macro is a replacement for the builtin tagging macro in your ViewTemplate|
|Version:|3.3.1 ($Rev: 6100 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2008-07-27 01:42:07 +1000 (Sun, 27 Jul 2008) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TagglyTaggingPlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird <simon.baird@gmail.com>|
|License:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TheBSDLicense|
!Notes
See http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TagglyTagging
***/
//{{{

merge(String.prototype,{

	parseTagExpr: function(debug) {

		if (this.trim() == "")
			return "(true)";

		var anyLogicOp = /(!|&&|\|\||\(|\))/g;
		var singleLogicOp = /^(!|&&|\|\||\(|\))$/;

		var spaced = this.
			// because square brackets in templates are no good
			// this means you can use [(With Spaces)] instead of [[With Spaces]]
			replace(/\[\(/g," [[").
			replace(/\)\]/g,"]] "). 
			// space things out so we can use readBracketedList. tricky eh?
			replace(anyLogicOp," $1 ");

		var expr = "";

		var tokens = spaced.readBracketedList(false); // false means don't uniq the list. nice one JR!

		for (var i=0;i<tokens.length;i++)
			if (tokens[i].match(singleLogicOp))
				expr += tokens[i];
			else
				expr += "tiddler.tags.contains('%0')".format([tokens[i].replace(/'/,"\\'")]); // fix single quote bug. still have round bracket bug i think

		if (debug)
			alert(expr);

		return '('+expr+')';
	}

});

merge(TiddlyWiki.prototype,{
	getTiddlersByTagExpr: function(tagExpr,sortField) {

		var result = [];

		var expr = tagExpr.parseTagExpr();

		store.forEachTiddler(function(title,tiddler) {
			if (eval(expr))
				result.push(tiddler);
		});

		if(!sortField)
			sortField = "title";

		result.sort(function(a,b) {return a[sortField] < b[sortField] ? -1 : (a[sortField] == b[sortField] ? 0 : +1);});
		
		return result;
	}
});

config.taggly = {

	// for translations
	lingo: {
		labels: {
			asc:        "\u2191", // down arrow
			desc:       "\u2193", // up arrow
			title:      "title",
			modified:   "modified",
			created:    "created",
			show:       "+",
			hide:       "-",
			normal:     "normal",
			group:      "group",
			commas:     "commas",
			sitemap:    "sitemap",
			numCols:    "cols\u00b1", // plus minus sign
			label:      "Tagged as '%0':",
			exprLabel:  "Matching tag expression '%0':",
			excerpts:   "excerpts",
			descr:      "descr",
			slices:     "slices",
			contents:   "contents",
			sliders:    "sliders",
			noexcerpts: "title only",
			noneFound:  "(none)"
		},

		tooltips: {
			title:      "Click to sort by title",
			modified:   "Click to sort by modified date",
			created:    "Click to sort by created date",
			show:       "Click to show tagging list",
			hide:       "Click to hide tagging list",
			normal:     "Click to show a normal ungrouped list",
			group:      "Click to show list grouped by tag",
			sitemap:    "Click to show a sitemap style list",
			commas:     "Click to show a comma separated list",
			numCols:    "Click to change number of columns",
			excerpts:   "Click to show excerpts",
			descr:      "Click to show the description slice",
			slices:     "Click to show all slices",
			contents:   "Click to show entire tiddler contents",
			sliders:    "Click to show tiddler contents in sliders",
			noexcerpts: "Click to show entire title only"
		},

		tooDeepMessage: "* //sitemap too deep...//"
	},

	config: {
		showTaggingCounts: true,
		listOpts: {
			// the first one will be the default
			sortBy:     ["title","modified","created"],
			sortOrder:  ["asc","desc"],
			hideState:  ["show","hide"],
			listMode:   ["normal","group","sitemap","commas"],
			numCols:    ["1","2","3","4","5","6"],
			excerpts:   ["noexcerpts","excerpts","descr","slices","contents","sliders"]
		},
		valuePrefix: "taggly.",
		excludeTags: ["excludeLists","excludeTagging"],
		excerptSize: 50,
		excerptMarker: "/%"+"%/",
		siteMapDepthLimit: 25
	},

	getTagglyOpt: function(title,opt) {
		var val = store.getValue(title,this.config.valuePrefix+opt);
		return val ? val : this.config.listOpts[opt][0];
	},

	setTagglyOpt: function(title,opt,value) {
		if (!store.tiddlerExists(title))
			// create it silently
			store.saveTiddler(title,title,config.views.editor.defaultText.format([title]),config.options.txtUserName,new Date(),"");
		// if value is default then remove it to save space
		return store.setValue(title,
			this.config.valuePrefix+opt,
			value == this.config.listOpts[opt][0] ? null : value);
	},

	getNextValue: function(title,opt) {
		var current = this.getTagglyOpt(title,opt);
		var pos = this.config.listOpts[opt].indexOf(current);
		// a little usability enhancement. actually it doesn't work right for grouped or sitemap
		var limit = (opt == "numCols" ? store.getTiddlersByTagExpr(title).length : this.config.listOpts[opt].length);
		var newPos = (pos + 1) % limit;
		return this.config.listOpts[opt][newPos];
	},

	toggleTagglyOpt: function(title,opt) {
		var newVal = this.getNextValue(title,opt);
		this.setTagglyOpt(title,opt,newVal);
	}, 

	createListControl: function(place,title,type) {
		var lingo = config.taggly.lingo;
		var label;
		var tooltip;
		var onclick;

		if ((type == "title" || type == "modified" || type == "created")) {
			// "special" controls. a little tricky. derived from sortOrder and sortBy
			label = lingo.labels[type];
			tooltip = lingo.tooltips[type];

			if (this.getTagglyOpt(title,"sortBy") == type) {
				label += lingo.labels[this.getTagglyOpt(title,"sortOrder")];
				onclick = function() {
					config.taggly.toggleTagglyOpt(title,"sortOrder");
					return false;
				}
			}
			else {
				onclick = function() {
					config.taggly.setTagglyOpt(title,"sortBy",type);
					config.taggly.setTagglyOpt(title,"sortOrder",config.taggly.config.listOpts.sortOrder[0]);
					return false;
				}
			}
		}
		else {
			// "regular" controls, nice and simple
			label = lingo.labels[type == "numCols" ? type : this.getNextValue(title,type)];
			tooltip = lingo.tooltips[type == "numCols" ? type : this.getNextValue(title,type)];
			onclick = function() {
				config.taggly.toggleTagglyOpt(title,type);
				return false;
			}
		}

		// hide button because commas don't have columns
		if (!(this.getTagglyOpt(title,"listMode") == "commas" && type == "numCols"))
			createTiddlyButton(place,label,tooltip,onclick,type == "hideState" ? "hidebutton" : "button");
	},

	makeColumns: function(orig,numCols) {
		var listSize = orig.length;
		var colSize = listSize/numCols;
		var remainder = listSize % numCols;

		var upperColsize = colSize;
		var lowerColsize = colSize;

		if (colSize != Math.floor(colSize)) {
			// it's not an exact fit so..
			upperColsize = Math.floor(colSize) + 1;
			lowerColsize = Math.floor(colSize);
		}

		var output = [];
		var c = 0;
		for (var j=0;j<numCols;j++) {
			var singleCol = [];
			var thisSize = j < remainder ? upperColsize : lowerColsize;
			for (var i=0;i<thisSize;i++) 
				singleCol.push(orig[c++]);
			output.push(singleCol);
		}

		return output;
	},

	drawTable: function(place,columns,theClass) {
		var newTable = createTiddlyElement(place,"table",null,theClass);
		var newTbody = createTiddlyElement(newTable,"tbody");
		var newTr = createTiddlyElement(newTbody,"tr");
		for (var j=0;j<columns.length;j++) {
			var colOutput = "";
			for (var i=0;i<columns[j].length;i++) 
				colOutput += columns[j][i];
			var newTd = createTiddlyElement(newTr,"td",null,"tagglyTagging"); // todo should not need this class
			wikify(colOutput,newTd);
		}
		return newTable;
	},

	createTagglyList: function(place,title,isTagExpr) {
		switch(this.getTagglyOpt(title,"listMode")) {
			case "group":  return this.createTagglyListGrouped(place,title,isTagExpr); break;
			case "normal": return this.createTagglyListNormal(place,title,false,isTagExpr); break;
			case "commas": return this.createTagglyListNormal(place,title,true,isTagExpr); break;
			case "sitemap":return this.createTagglyListSiteMap(place,title,isTagExpr); break;
		}
	},

	getTaggingCount: function(title,isTagExpr) {
		// thanks to Doug Edmunds
		if (this.config.showTaggingCounts) {
			var tagCount = config.taggly.getTiddlers(title,'title',isTagExpr).length;
			if (tagCount > 0)
				return " ("+tagCount+")";
		}
		return "";
	},

	getTiddlers: function(titleOrExpr,sortBy,isTagExpr) {
		return isTagExpr ? store.getTiddlersByTagExpr(titleOrExpr,sortBy) : store.getTaggedTiddlers(titleOrExpr,sortBy);
	},

	getExcerpt: function(inTiddlerTitle,title,indent) {
		if (!indent)
			indent = 1;

		var displayMode = this.getTagglyOpt(inTiddlerTitle,"excerpts");
		var t = store.getTiddler(title);

		if (t && displayMode == "excerpts") {
			var text = t.text.replace(/\n/," ");
			var marker = text.indexOf(this.config.excerptMarker);
			if (marker != -1) {
				return " {{excerpt{<nowiki>" + text.substr(0,marker) + "</nowiki>}}}";
			}
			else if (text.length < this.config.excerptSize) {
				return " {{excerpt{<nowiki>" + t.text + "</nowiki>}}}";
			}
			else {
				return " {{excerpt{<nowiki>" + t.text.substr(0,this.config.excerptSize) + "..." + "</nowiki>}}}";
			}
		}
		else if (t && displayMode == "contents") {
			return "\n{{contents indent"+indent+"{\n" + t.text + "\n}}}";
		}
		else if (t && displayMode == "sliders") {
			return "<slider slide>\n{{contents{\n" + t.text + "\n}}}\n</slider>";
		}
		else if (t && displayMode == "descr") {
			var descr = store.getTiddlerSlice(title,'Description');
			return descr ? " {{excerpt{" + descr  + "}}}" : "";
		}
		else if (t && displayMode == "slices") {
			var result = "";
			var slices = store.calcAllSlices(title);
			for (var s in slices)
				result += "|%0|<nowiki>%1</nowiki>|\n".format([s,slices[s]]);
			return result ? "\n{{excerpt excerptIndent{\n" + result  + "}}}" : "";
		}
		return "";
	},

	notHidden: function(t,inTiddler) {
		if (typeof t == "string") 
			t = store.getTiddler(t);
		return (!t || !t.tags.containsAny(this.config.excludeTags) ||
				(inTiddler && this.config.excludeTags.contains(inTiddler)));
	},

	// this is for normal and commas mode
	createTagglyListNormal: function(place,title,useCommas,isTagExpr) {

		var list = config.taggly.getTiddlers(title,this.getTagglyOpt(title,"sortBy"),isTagExpr);

		if (this.getTagglyOpt(title,"sortOrder") == "desc")
			list = list.reverse();

		var output = [];
		var first = true;
		for (var i=0;i<list.length;i++) {
			if (this.notHidden(list[i],title)) {
				var countString = this.getTaggingCount(list[i].title);
				var excerpt = this.getExcerpt(title,list[i].title);
				if (useCommas)
					output.push((first ? "" : ", ") + "[[" + list[i].title + "]]" + countString + excerpt);
				else
					output.push("*[[" + list[i].title + "]]" + countString + excerpt + "\n");

				first = false;
			}
		}

		return this.drawTable(place,
			this.makeColumns(output,useCommas ? 1 : parseInt(this.getTagglyOpt(title,"numCols"))),
			useCommas ? "commas" : "normal");
	},

	// this is for the "grouped" mode
	createTagglyListGrouped: function(place,title,isTagExpr) {
		var sortBy = this.getTagglyOpt(title,"sortBy");
		var sortOrder = this.getTagglyOpt(title,"sortOrder");

		var list = config.taggly.getTiddlers(title,sortBy,isTagExpr);

		if (sortOrder == "desc")
			list = list.reverse();

		var leftOvers = []
		for (var i=0;i<list.length;i++)
			leftOvers.push(list[i].title);

		var allTagsHolder = {};
		for (var i=0;i<list.length;i++) {
			for (var j=0;j<list[i].tags.length;j++) {

				if (list[i].tags[j] != title) { // not this tiddler

					if (this.notHidden(list[i].tags[j],title)) {

						if (!allTagsHolder[list[i].tags[j]])
							allTagsHolder[list[i].tags[j]] = "";

						if (this.notHidden(list[i],title)) {
							allTagsHolder[list[i].tags[j]] += "**[["+list[i].title+"]]"
										+ this.getTaggingCount(list[i].title) + this.getExcerpt(title,list[i].title) + "\n";

							leftOvers.setItem(list[i].title,-1); // remove from leftovers. at the end it will contain the leftovers

						}
					}
				}
			}
		}

		var allTags = [];
		for (var t in allTagsHolder)
			allTags.push(t);

		var sortHelper = function(a,b) {
			if (a == b) return 0;
			if (a < b) return -1;
			return 1;
		};

		allTags.sort(function(a,b) {
			var tidA = store.getTiddler(a);
			var tidB = store.getTiddler(b);
			if (sortBy == "title") return sortHelper(a,b);
			else if (!tidA && !tidB) return 0;
			else if (!tidA) return -1;
			else if (!tidB) return +1;
			else return sortHelper(tidA[sortBy],tidB[sortBy]);
		});

		var leftOverOutput = "";
		for (var i=0;i<leftOvers.length;i++)
			if (this.notHidden(leftOvers[i],title))
				leftOverOutput += "*[["+leftOvers[i]+"]]" + this.getTaggingCount(leftOvers[i]) + this.getExcerpt(title,leftOvers[i]) + "\n";

		var output = [];

		if (sortOrder == "desc")
			allTags.reverse();
		else if (leftOverOutput != "")
			// leftovers first...
			output.push(leftOverOutput);

		for (var i=0;i<allTags.length;i++)
			if (allTagsHolder[allTags[i]] != "")
				output.push("*[["+allTags[i]+"]]" + this.getTaggingCount(allTags[i]) + this.getExcerpt(title,allTags[i]) + "\n" + allTagsHolder[allTags[i]]);

		if (sortOrder == "desc" && leftOverOutput != "")
			// leftovers last...
			output.push(leftOverOutput);

		return this.drawTable(place,
				this.makeColumns(output,parseInt(this.getTagglyOpt(title,"numCols"))),
				"grouped");

	},

	// used to build site map
	treeTraverse: function(title,depth,sortBy,sortOrder,isTagExpr) {

		var list = config.taggly.getTiddlers(title,sortBy,isTagExpr);

		if (sortOrder == "desc")
			list.reverse();

		var indent = "";
		for (var j=0;j<depth;j++)
			indent += "*"

		var childOutput = "";

		if (depth > this.config.siteMapDepthLimit)
			childOutput += indent + this.lingo.tooDeepMessage;
		else
			for (var i=0;i<list.length;i++)
				if (list[i].title != title)
					if (this.notHidden(list[i].title,this.config.inTiddler))
						childOutput += this.treeTraverse(list[i].title,depth+1,sortBy,sortOrder,false);

		if (depth == 0)
			return childOutput;
		else
			return indent + "[["+title+"]]" + this.getTaggingCount(title) + this.getExcerpt(this.config.inTiddler,title,depth) + "\n" + childOutput;
	},

	// this if for the site map mode
	createTagglyListSiteMap: function(place,title,isTagExpr) {
		this.config.inTiddler = title; // nasty. should pass it in to traverse probably
		var output = this.treeTraverse(title,0,this.getTagglyOpt(title,"sortBy"),this.getTagglyOpt(title,"sortOrder"),isTagExpr);
		return this.drawTable(place,
				this.makeColumns(output.split(/(?=^\*\[)/m),parseInt(this.getTagglyOpt(title,"numCols"))), // regexp magic
				"sitemap"
				);
	},

	macros: {
		tagglyTagging: {
			handler: function (place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
				var parsedParams = paramString.parseParams("tag",null,true);
				var refreshContainer = createTiddlyElement(place,"div");

				// do some refresh magic to make it keep the list fresh - thanks Saq
				refreshContainer.setAttribute("refresh","macro");
				refreshContainer.setAttribute("macroName",macroName);

				var tag = getParam(parsedParams,"tag");
				var expr = getParam(parsedParams,"expr");

				if (expr) {
					refreshContainer.setAttribute("isTagExpr","true");
					refreshContainer.setAttribute("title",expr);
					refreshContainer.setAttribute("showEmpty","true");
				}
				else {
					refreshContainer.setAttribute("isTagExpr","false");
					if (tag) {
        				refreshContainer.setAttribute("title",tag);
						refreshContainer.setAttribute("showEmpty","true");
					}
					else {
        				refreshContainer.setAttribute("title",tiddler.title);
						refreshContainer.setAttribute("showEmpty","false");
					}
				}
				this.refresh(refreshContainer);
			},

			refresh: function(place) {
				var title = place.getAttribute("title");
				var isTagExpr = place.getAttribute("isTagExpr") == "true";
				var showEmpty = place.getAttribute("showEmpty") == "true";
				removeChildren(place);
				addClass(place,"tagglyTagging");
				var countFound = config.taggly.getTiddlers(title,'title',isTagExpr).length
				if (countFound > 0 || showEmpty) {
					var lingo = config.taggly.lingo;
					config.taggly.createListControl(place,title,"hideState");
					if (config.taggly.getTagglyOpt(title,"hideState") == "show") {
						createTiddlyElement(place,"span",null,"tagglyLabel",
								isTagExpr ? lingo.labels.exprLabel.format([title]) : lingo.labels.label.format([title]));
						config.taggly.createListControl(place,title,"title");
						config.taggly.createListControl(place,title,"modified");
						config.taggly.createListControl(place,title,"created");
						config.taggly.createListControl(place,title,"listMode");
						config.taggly.createListControl(place,title,"excerpts");
						config.taggly.createListControl(place,title,"numCols");
						config.taggly.createTagglyList(place,title,isTagExpr);
						if (countFound == 0 && showEmpty)
							createTiddlyElement(place,"div",null,"tagglyNoneFound",lingo.labels.noneFound);
					}
				}
			}
		}
	},

	// todo fix these up a bit
	styles: [
"/*{{{*/",
"/* created by TagglyTaggingPlugin */",
".tagglyTagging { padding-top:0.5em; }",
".tagglyTagging li.listTitle { display:none; }",
".tagglyTagging ul {",
"	margin-top:0px; padding-top:0.5em; padding-left:2em;",
"	margin-bottom:0px; padding-bottom:0px;",
"}",
".tagglyTagging { vertical-align: top; margin:0px; padding:0px; }",
".tagglyTagging table { margin:0px; padding:0px; }",
".tagglyTagging .button { visibility:hidden; margin-left:3px; margin-right:3px; }",
".tagglyTagging .button, .tagglyTagging .hidebutton {",
"	color:[[ColorPalette::TertiaryLight]]; font-size:90%;",
"	border:0px; padding-left:0.3em;padding-right:0.3em;",
"}",
".tagglyTagging .button:hover, .hidebutton:hover, ",
".tagglyTagging .button:active, .hidebutton:active  {",
"	border:0px; background:[[ColorPalette::TertiaryPale]]; color:[[ColorPalette::TertiaryDark]];",
"}",
".selected .tagglyTagging .button { visibility:visible; }",
".tagglyTagging .hidebutton { color:[[ColorPalette::Background]]; }",
".selected .tagglyTagging .hidebutton { color:[[ColorPalette::TertiaryLight]] }",
".tagglyLabel { color:[[ColorPalette::TertiaryMid]]; font-size:90%; }",
".tagglyTagging ul {padding-top:0px; padding-bottom:0.5em; margin-left:1em; }",
".tagglyTagging ul ul {list-style-type:disc; margin-left:-1em;}",
".tagglyTagging ul ul li {margin-left:0.5em; }",
".editLabel { font-size:90%; padding-top:0.5em; }",
".tagglyTagging .commas { padding-left:1.8em; }",
"/* not technically tagglytagging but will put them here anyway */",
".tagglyTagged li.listTitle { display:none; }",
".tagglyTagged li { display: inline; font-size:90%; }",
".tagglyTagged ul { margin:0px; padding:0px; }",
".excerpt { color:[[ColorPalette::TertiaryDark]]; }",
".excerptIndent { margin-left:4em; }",
"div.tagglyTagging table,",
"div.tagglyTagging table tr,",
"td.tagglyTagging",
" {border-style:none!important; }",
".tagglyTagging .contents { border-bottom:2px solid [[ColorPalette::TertiaryPale]]; padding:0 1em 1em 0.5em;",
"  margin-bottom:0.5em; }",
".tagglyTagging .indent1  { margin-left:3em;  }",
".tagglyTagging .indent2  { margin-left:4em;  }",
".tagglyTagging .indent3  { margin-left:5em;  }",
".tagglyTagging .indent4  { margin-left:6em;  }",
".tagglyTagging .indent5  { margin-left:7em;  }",
".tagglyTagging .indent6  { margin-left:8em;  }",
".tagglyTagging .indent7  { margin-left:9em;  }",
".tagglyTagging .indent8  { margin-left:10em; }",
".tagglyTagging .indent9  { margin-left:11em; }",
".tagglyTagging .indent10 { margin-left:12em; }",
".tagglyNoneFound { margin-left:2em; color:[[ColorPalette::TertiaryMid]]; font-size:90%; font-style:italic; }",
"/*}}}*/",
		""].join("\n"),

	init: function() {
		merge(config.macros,this.macros);
		config.shadowTiddlers["TagglyTaggingStyles"] = this.styles;
		store.addNotification("TagglyTaggingStyles",refreshStyles);
	}
};

config.taggly.init();

//}}}

/***
InlineSlidersPlugin
By Saq Imtiaz
http://tw.lewcid.org/sandbox/#InlineSlidersPlugin

// syntax adjusted to not clash with NestedSlidersPlugin
// added + syntax to start open instead of closed

***/
//{{{
config.formatters.unshift( {
	name: "inlinesliders",
	// match: "\\+\\+\\+\\+|\\<slider",
	match: "\\<slider",
	// lookaheadRegExp: /(?:\+\+\+\+|<slider) (.*?)(?:>?)\n((?:.|\n)*?)\n(?:====|<\/slider>)/mg,
	lookaheadRegExp: /(?:<slider)(\+?) (.*?)(?:>)\n((?:.|\n)*?)\n(?:<\/slider>)/mg,
	handler: function(w) {
		this.lookaheadRegExp.lastIndex = w.matchStart;
		var lookaheadMatch = this.lookaheadRegExp.exec(w.source)
		if(lookaheadMatch && lookaheadMatch.index == w.matchStart ) {
			var btn = createTiddlyButton(w.output,lookaheadMatch[2] + " "+"\u00BB",lookaheadMatch[2],this.onClickSlider,"button sliderButton");
			var panel = createTiddlyElement(w.output,"div",null,"sliderPanel");
			panel.style.display = (lookaheadMatch[1] == '+' ? "block" : "none");
			wikify(lookaheadMatch[3],panel);
			w.nextMatch = lookaheadMatch.index + lookaheadMatch[0].length;
		}
   },
   onClickSlider : function(e) {
		if(!e) var e = window.event;
		var n = this.nextSibling;
		n.style.display = (n.style.display=="none") ? "block" : "none";
		return false;
	}
});

//}}}

To: Greg 
Subject: Fw: 

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Norfolk. In
order to increase sales, she decides to allow
her loyal customers - most of whom are
unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay
later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed
on a ledger (thereby granting the customers
loans).
Word gets around and as a result increasing
numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar.
Taking advantage of her customers' freedom
from immediate payment constraints, Heidi
increases her prices for wine and beer, the
most-consumed beverages. Her sales volume
increases…massively.
A young and dynamic customer service
consultant at the local bank recognizes these
customer debts as valuable future assets and
increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no
reason for undue concern since he has the
debts of the alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert
bankers transform these customer assets into
DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and
PUKEBONDS. These securities are then
traded on markets worldwide. No one really
understands what these abbreviations mean
and how the securities are guaranteed.
Nevertheless, as their prices continuously
climb, the securities become top-selling items.
One day, although the prices are still climbing,
a risk manager of the bank, (subsequently of
course fired due his negativity), decides that
slowly the time has come to demand payment
of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's
bar. However they cannot pay back the debts
and Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and
claims bankruptcy
DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by
95 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing
in price after dropping by 80 %.
The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted
her generous payment due dates and having
invested in the securities are faced with a new
situation. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy,
her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor.
The bank is saved by the Government
following dramatic round-the-clock
consultations by leaders from the governing
political parties.The funds required for this
purpose are obtained by a tax levied on the
non-drinkers.
Finally an explanation I understand...

William R. Schriber, CAIA
EIV Capital Management Co., LLC
1616 South Voss, Suite 940
Houston, Texas 77057
(o) 281-760-4904
(c) 832-689-6089
bschriber@eivcapital.com
www.eivcapital.com

This is the first week since 1933 going back to the NBC-Blue Network
> that ABC Radio has not fed a show based in Chicago.

Read Only:
Are you viewing over http?  Options > AdvancedOptions > Hide editing
features.. might be the culprit.

The TiddlyWiki default is to hide editing, which is fine, but plays
badly with server sides and the UploadPlugin.  At tiddlyspot we poke
in a systemConfig-tagged tiddler to switch "hide editing" off,
containing:

config.options.chkHttpReadOnly = false;

..which might help.  


Save to Web Disk:

The UploadPlugin
> seems to hide the Save functionality.  How can I get it back?

Hi Alan..

Because you're looking at an http:// URL, the normal Save button
doesn't know where to save to, so UploadPlugin hides it.  To do what
you want, you need to first get the file saved locally (download it
via FTP, or do a right-click > Save, or whatever).

Then open that local copy and do your work in there.  You will have
the normal Save button (renamed to "Save to disk") and the
"Upload"/"Save to web" button, to save the TW to your web host.

The local page will have it's own cookies, so the first time you open
it, you'll have to re-enter you password and other settings.

Not precisely what you asked for, but hopefully it's close enough :)

/***
|Name:|ToggleTagPlugin|
|Description:|Makes a checkbox which toggles a tag in a tiddler|
|Version:|3.1.0 ($Rev: 4907 $)|
|Date:|$Date: 2008-05-13 03:15:46 +1000 (Tue, 13 May 2008) $|
|Source:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#ToggleTagPlugin|
|Author:|Simon Baird <simon.baird@gmail.com>|
|License:|http://mptw.tiddlyspot.com/#TheBSDLicense|
!!Usage
{{{<<toggleTag }}}//{{{TagName TiddlerName LabelText}}}//{{{>>}}}
* TagName - the tag to be toggled, default value "checked"
* TiddlerName - the tiddler to toggle the tag in, default value the current tiddler
* LabelText - the text (gets wikified) to put next to the check box, default value is '{{{[[TagName]]}}}' or '{{{[[TagName]] [[TiddlerName]]}}}'
(If a parameter is '.' then the default will be used)
* TouchMod flag - if non empty then touch the tiddlers mod date. Note, can set config.toggleTagAlwaysTouchModDate to always touch mod date
!!Examples
|Code|Description|Example|h
|{{{<<toggleTag>>}}}|Toggles the default tag (checked) in this tiddler|<<toggleTag>>|
|{{{<<toggleTag TagName>>}}}|Toggles the TagName tag in this tiddler|<<toggleTag TagName>>|
|{{{<<toggleTag TagName TiddlerName>>}}}|Toggles the TagName tag in the TiddlerName tiddler|<<toggleTag TagName TiddlerName>>|
|{{{<<toggleTag TagName TiddlerName 'click me'>>}}}|Same but with custom label|<<toggleTag TagName TiddlerName 'click me'>>|
|{{{<<toggleTag . . 'click me'>>}}}|dot means use default value|<<toggleTag . . 'click me'>>|
!!Notes
* If TiddlerName doesn't exist it will be silently created
* Set label to '-' to specify no label
* See also http://mgtd-alpha.tiddlyspot.com/#ToggleTag2
!!Known issues
* Doesn't smoothly handle the case where you toggle a tag in a tiddler that is current open for editing
* Should convert to use named params
***/
//{{{

if (config.toggleTagAlwaysTouchModDate == undefined) config.toggleTagAlwaysTouchModDate = false;

merge(config.macros,{

	toggleTag: {

		createIfRequired: true,
		shortLabel: "[[%0]]",
		longLabel: "[[%0]] [[%1]]",

		handler: function(place,macroName,params,wikifier,paramString,tiddler) {
			var tiddlerTitle = tiddler ? tiddler.title : '';
			var tag   = (params[0] && params[0] != '.') ? params[0] : "checked";
			var title = (params[1] && params[1] != '.') ? params[1] : tiddlerTitle;
			var defaultLabel = (title == tiddlerTitle ? this.shortLabel : this.longLabel);
			var label = (params[2] && params[2] != '.') ? params[2] : defaultLabel;
			var touchMod = (params[3] && params[3] != '.') ? params[3] : "";
			label = (label == '-' ? '' : label); // dash means no label
			var theTiddler = (title == tiddlerTitle ? tiddler : store.getTiddler(title));
			var cb = createTiddlyCheckbox(place, label.format([tag,title]), theTiddler && theTiddler.isTagged(tag), function(e) {
				if (!store.tiddlerExists(title)) {
					if (config.macros.toggleTag.createIfRequired) {
						var content = store.getTiddlerText(title); // just in case it's a shadow
						store.saveTiddler(title,title,content?content:"",config.options.txtUserName,new Date(),null);
					}
					else 
						return false;
				}
				if ((touchMod != "" || config.toggleTagAlwaysTouchModDate) && theTiddler)
						theTiddler.modified = new Date();
				store.setTiddlerTag(title,this.checked,tag);
				return true;
			});
		}
	}
});

//}}}

Mortgage bailout






Limbaugh wants Obama to fail
SL 3/2/9

1.	Circuit City
2.	4000 cows FDL
3.	Prison rate quad
4.	Rodriguez lies to Couric
5.	JT – 1 license plate
6.	Jindal defends his speech
7.	Contractor loses bid Racine
8.	Point reward at Knapp
9.	Trucks muck Oak Creek
10.	Genetic Selection
11.	Citi lowers mortgage
12.	Bernanke wants more aid
13.	Italian doc clones three babies
14.	McNuggets emergency
15.	Bill Gates bans Apple
16.	Pres runs out of people to blame
17.	BO policies slowing recovery?
18.	Pediatrician gets probation
19.	Jackson man 3X arrested drunk
20.	Phoenix daily abduction
21.	Two state solution
22.	Bush memo ignores laws
23.	 Read Blago’s book?

[[Rewarding those who put the 'liar' in liar loans]]
President Obama continues to insist that only "responsible families" will benefit from his foreclosure prevention program. Addressing Congress last week, Mr. Obama said his plan "won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford." Sorry, Mr. President. It's becoming increasingly obvious that your plan is going to help tens of thousands of borrowers who put the "liar" into liar loans.

[[Decremental? Fitting Word for Ugly Times]]
Every era on Wall Street has its buzzwords, terms that capture a prevailing mood or business theme. In today's era of economic decline, that term is "decremental.

[[OBAMA MOVES TO STOP MEXICAN TRUCKS]]

[[defense spending is earmarked to decline]]
Mr. Obama's budget has overall defense spending falling sharply starting in future years — to $614 billion in 2011, and staying more or less flat for a half decade. This means that relative both to the economy and especially to domestic priorities, defense spending is earmarked to decline

Who's afraid of the repo man?

Obama won, deal with it (public schools)

obama moves to shut borders

http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/02/25/the-15-strangest-college-courses-in-america/

Paul Harvey - memories

FIrst heard

phrases...rest of, partly personal, closed circuit for,
Paul Harvey is credited with creating a number of catch phrases, including "Reganomics", "guestimate", and "skyjacker."
"May I have your undivided for just a moment."

He said he agreed to plug only products he used himself, which meant turning down 10 sponsors for every one he endorsed.
2006, Forbes.com quoted an ABC executive as saying Harvey was bringing in more than 10 percent of the network's $300 million in advertising billings. The network was so pleased with Harvey's work that he was given a 10-year, $100 million contract in 2000.

as in the old days...not that different than then

How people influenced - she listens

Internet ads/fate of newspapers

Tea party at St. Louis objecting to stimulous

Warren Buffet - economy in shambles

Iran can make nuclear weapons

CA unemployment 10%

Kudlow: Obama Declares War on Investors,

American Bankers Association has a message for the president: Stop talking trash about banks.

Dr Seuss 105 years

sponsored by the Milwaukee School of Engineering's Society of Model Engineers, features hundreds of train layouts in a variety of sizes.

Now in its 44th year, this show often has examples of innovations in model building.

One of the biggest hits in recent years was Tim Kaebisch's Lego Miller Park model, which is a 3-foot replica of the ballpark made of more than 30,000 Lego bricks.

The show also has hourly door prizes and a large-scale model riding train, suitable for all ages (and sizes).

TrainTime 2009 runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the First Floor CC Building Room of the Michael J. Cudahy Student Center on the MSOE campus, 1025 N. Broadway.

For information, see some.groups.msoe.edu. Admission is free.

- Mary-Liz Shaw

/***
Description: Contains the stuff you need to use Tiddlyspot
Note, you also need UploadPlugin, PasswordOptionPlugin and LoadRemoteFileThroughProxy
from http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info for a complete working Tiddlyspot site.
***/
//{{{

// edit this if you are migrating sites or retrofitting an existing TW
config.tiddlyspotSiteId = 'nxx';

// make it so you can by default see edit controls via http
config.options.chkHttpReadOnly = false;
window.readOnly = false; // make sure of it (for tw 2.2)
window.showBackstage = true; // show backstage too

// disable autosave in d3
if (window.location.protocol != "file:")
	config.options.chkGTDLazyAutoSave = false;

// tweak shadow tiddlers to add upload button, password entry box etc
with (config.shadowTiddlers) {
	SiteUrl = 'http://'+config.tiddlyspotSiteId+'.tiddlyspot.com';
	SideBarOptions = SideBarOptions.replace(/(<<saveChanges>>)/,"$1<<tiddler TspotSidebar>>");
	OptionsPanel = OptionsPanel.replace(/^/,"<<tiddler TspotOptions>>");
	DefaultTiddlers = DefaultTiddlers.replace(/^/,"[[WelcomeToTiddlyspot]] ");
	MainMenu = MainMenu.replace(/^/,"[[WelcomeToTiddlyspot]] ");
}

// create some shadow tiddler content
merge(config.shadowTiddlers,{

'WelcomeToTiddlyspot':[
 "This document is a ~TiddlyWiki from tiddlyspot.com.  A ~TiddlyWiki is an electronic notebook that is great for managing todo lists, personal information, and all sorts of things.",
 "",
 "@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //What now?// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ Before you can save any changes, you need to enter your password in the form below.  Then configure privacy and other site settings at your [[control panel|http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/controlpanel]] (your control panel username is //" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + "//).",
 "<<tiddler TspotControls>>",
 "See also GettingStarted.",
 "",
 "@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Working online// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ You can edit this ~TiddlyWiki right now, and save your changes using the \"save to web\" button in the column on the right.",
 "",
 "@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Working offline// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ A fully functioning copy of this ~TiddlyWiki can be saved onto your hard drive or USB stick.  You can make changes and save them locally without being connected to the Internet.  When you're ready to sync up again, just click \"upload\" and your ~TiddlyWiki will be saved back to tiddlyspot.com.",
 "",
 "@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Help!// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ Find out more about ~TiddlyWiki at [[TiddlyWiki.com|http://tiddlywiki.com]].  Also visit [[TiddlyWiki.org|http://tiddlywiki.org]] for documentation on learning and using ~TiddlyWiki. New users are especially welcome on the [[TiddlyWiki mailing list|http://groups.google.com/group/TiddlyWiki]], which is an excellent place to ask questions and get help.  If you have a tiddlyspot related problem email [[tiddlyspot support|mailto:support@tiddlyspot.com]].",
 "",
 "@@font-weight:bold;font-size:1.3em;color:#444; //Enjoy :)// &nbsp;&nbsp;@@ We hope you like using your tiddlyspot.com site.  Please email [[feedback@tiddlyspot.com|mailto:feedback@tiddlyspot.com]] with any comments or suggestions."
].join("\n"),

'TspotControls':[
 "| tiddlyspot password:|<<option pasUploadPassword>>|",
 "| site management:|<<upload http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi index.html . .  " + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ">>//(requires tiddlyspot password)//<br>[[control panel|http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/controlpanel]], [[download (go offline)|http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/download]]|",
 "| links:|[[tiddlyspot.com|http://tiddlyspot.com/]], [[FAQs|http://faq.tiddlyspot.com/]], [[blog|http://tiddlyspot.blogspot.com/]], email [[support|mailto:support@tiddlyspot.com]] & [[feedback|mailto:feedback@tiddlyspot.com]], [[donate|http://tiddlyspot.com/?page=donate]]|"
].join("\n"),

'TspotSidebar':[
 "<<upload http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi index.html . .  " + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ">><html><a href='http://" + config.tiddlyspotSiteId + ".tiddlyspot.com/download' class='button'>download</a></html>"
].join("\n"),

'TspotOptions':[
 "tiddlyspot password:",
 "<<option pasUploadPassword>>",
 ""
].join("\n")

});
//}}}

  
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The University of Wisconsin System is questioning a proposal by Gov. Jim Doyle to use some private money meant for the university to help balance the state budget.

The governor's two-year budget would require UW's 26 campuses and UW Extension to transfer $28.5 million in program revenues to the general budget.

That means 1 percent of revenue from things like residence halls, bookstores and contracts would go back to the state. Income from university foundations also would be affected.

UW System spokesman David Giroux says the plan "just doesn't seem to make sense."

He says it would disproportionately hurt schools like UW-Madison that are successful at raising non-state money.

Nicholas Carlson|Mar. 6, 2009, 8:44 AM|197
Tags: Online, Twitter, White House, Barack Obama, Social Networking, Recession, Big Tech 
Twitter cofounder and CEO Ev Williams is headed to the White House today.

The administration invited him to join a “young business leaders" summit to discuss the economic crises.

As Ev himself puts it -- in a Twitter message, of course -- "[this] must mean they're *really* out of ideas."

A reminder: With 6 million members and 700% plus growth, Twitter makes no money in the US. (It sells some ads in Japan).

(See also: Jon Stewart On Twitter: "I Have No Idea How It Works, Or Why It Is")

| !date | !user | !location | !storeUrl | !uploadDir | !toFilename | !backupdir | !origin |
| 06/03/2009 13:58:34 | YourName | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . |
| 06/03/2009 13:58:35 | YourName | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . |
| 06/03/2009 13:58:35 | YourName | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . |
| 06/03/2009 13:58:38 | YourName | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . |
| 06/03/2009 13:58:39 | YourName | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . | ok | ok | ok | ok |
| 06/03/2009 13:59:04 | YourName | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . |
| 14/03/2009 23:21:11 | MeMe | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . | ok |
| 14/03/2009 23:42:53 | MeMe | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . | ok |
| 14/03/2009 23:43:59 | MeMe | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . | failed |
| 14/03/2009 23:44:23 | MeMe | [[/|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/]] | [[store.cgi|http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/store.cgi]] | . | [[index.html | http://dub.tiddlyspot.com/index.html]] | . |

/***
|''Name:''|UploadPlugin|
|''Description:''|Save to web a TiddlyWiki|
|''Version:''|4.1.3|
|''Date:''|Feb 24, 2008|
|''Source:''|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#UploadPlugin|
|''Documentation:''|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#UploadPluginDoc|
|''Author:''|BidiX (BidiX (at) bidix (dot) info)|
|''License:''|[[BSD open source license|http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#%5B%5BBSD%20open%20source%20license%5D%5D ]]|
|''~CoreVersion:''|2.2.0|
|''Requires:''|PasswordOptionPlugin|
***/
//{{{
version.extensions.UploadPlugin = {
	major: 4, minor: 1, revision: 3,
	date: new Date("Feb 24, 2008"),
	source: 'http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info/#UploadPlugin',
	author: 'BidiX (BidiX (at) bidix (dot) info',
	coreVersion: '2.2.0'
};

//
// Environment
//

if (!window.bidix) window.bidix = {}; // bidix namespace
bidix.debugMode = false;	// true to activate both in Plugin and UploadService
	
//
// Upload Macro
//

config.macros.upload = {
// default values
	defaultBackupDir: '',	//no backup
	defaultStoreScript: "store.php",
	defaultToFilename: "index.html",
	defaultUploadDir: ".",
	authenticateUser: true	// UploadService Authenticate User
};
	
config.macros.upload.label = {
	promptOption: "Save and Upload this TiddlyWiki with UploadOptions",
	promptParamMacro: "Save and Upload this TiddlyWiki in %0",
	saveLabel: "save to web", 
	saveToDisk: "save to disk",
	uploadLabel: "upload"	
};

config.macros.upload.messages = {
	noStoreUrl: "No store URL in parmeters or options",
	usernameOrPasswordMissing: "Username or password missing"
};

config.macros.upload.handler = function(place,macroName,params) {
	if (readOnly)
		return;
	var label;
	if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "http") 
		label = this.label.saveLabel;
	else
		label = this.label.uploadLabel;
	var prompt;
	if (params[0]) {
		prompt = this.label.promptParamMacro.toString().format([this.destFile(params[0], 
			(params[1] ? params[1]:bidix.basename(window.location.toString())), params[3])]);
	} else {
		prompt = this.label.promptOption;
	}
	createTiddlyButton(place, label, prompt, function() {config.macros.upload.action(params);}, null, null, this.accessKey);
};

config.macros.upload.action = function(params)
{
		// for missing macro parameter set value from options
		if (!params) params = {};
		var storeUrl = params[0] ? params[0] : config.options.txtUploadStoreUrl;
		var toFilename = params[1] ? params[1] : config.options.txtUploadFilename;
		var backupDir = params[2] ? params[2] : config.options.txtUploadBackupDir;
		var uploadDir = params[3] ? params[3] : config.options.txtUploadDir;
		var username = params[4] ? params[4] : config.options.txtUploadUserName;
		var password = config.options.pasUploadPassword; // for security reason no password as macro parameter	
		// for still missing parameter set default value
		if ((!storeUrl) && (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "http")) 
			storeUrl = bidix.dirname(document.location.toString())+'/'+config.macros.upload.defaultStoreScript;
		if (storeUrl.substr(0,4) != "http")
			storeUrl = bidix.dirname(document.location.toString()) +'/'+ storeUrl;
		if (!toFilename)
			toFilename = bidix.basename(window.location.toString());
		if (!toFilename)
			toFilename = config.macros.upload.defaultToFilename;
		if (!uploadDir)
			uploadDir = config.macros.upload.defaultUploadDir;
		if (!backupDir)
			backupDir = config.macros.upload.defaultBackupDir;
		// report error if still missing
		if (!storeUrl) {
			alert(config.macros.upload.messages.noStoreUrl);
			clearMessage();
			return false;
		}
		if (config.macros.upload.authenticateUser && (!username || !password)) {
			alert(config.macros.upload.messages.usernameOrPasswordMissing);
			clearMessage();
			return false;
		}
		bidix.upload.uploadChanges(false,null,storeUrl, toFilename, uploadDir, backupDir, username, password); 
		return false; 
};

config.macros.upload.destFile = function(storeUrl, toFilename, uploadDir) 
{
	if (!storeUrl)
		return null;
		var dest = bidix.dirname(storeUrl);
		if (uploadDir && uploadDir != '.')
			dest = dest + '/' + uploadDir;
		dest = dest + '/' + toFilename;
	return dest;
};

//
// uploadOptions Macro
//

config.macros.uploadOptions = {
	handler: function(place,macroName,params) {
		var wizard = new Wizard();
		wizard.createWizard(place,this.wizardTitle);
		wizard.addStep(this.step1Title,this.step1Html);
		var markList = wizard.getElement("markList");
		var listWrapper = document.createElement("div");
		markList.parentNode.insertBefore(listWrapper,markList);
		wizard.setValue("listWrapper",listWrapper);
		this.refreshOptions(listWrapper,false);
		var uploadCaption;
		if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "http") 
			uploadCaption = config.macros.upload.label.saveLabel;
		else
			uploadCaption = config.macros.upload.label.uploadLabel;
		
		wizard.setButtons([
				{caption: uploadCaption, tooltip: config.macros.upload.label.promptOption, 
					onClick: config.macros.upload.action},
				{caption: this.cancelButton, tooltip: this.cancelButtonPrompt, onClick: this.onCancel}
				
			]);
	},
	options: [
		"txtUploadUserName",
		"pasUploadPassword",
		"txtUploadStoreUrl",
		"txtUploadDir",
		"txtUploadFilename",
		"txtUploadBackupDir",
		"chkUploadLog",
		"txtUploadLogMaxLine"		
	],
	refreshOptions: function(listWrapper) {
		var opts = [];
		for(i=0; i<this.options.length; i++) {
			var opt = {};
			opts.push();
			opt.option = "";
			n = this.options[i];
			opt.name = n;
			opt.lowlight = !config.optionsDesc[n];
			opt.description = opt.lowlight ? this.unknownDescription : config.optionsDesc[n];
			opts.push(opt);
		}
		var listview = ListView.create(listWrapper,opts,this.listViewTemplate);
		for(n=0; n<opts.length; n++) {
			var type = opts[n].name.substr(0,3);
			var h = config.macros.option.types[type];
			if (h && h.create) {
				h.create(opts[n].colElements['option'],type,opts[n].name,opts[n].name,"no");
			}
		}
		
	},
	onCancel: function(e)
	{
		backstage.switchTab(null);
		return false;
	},
	
	wizardTitle: "Upload with options",
	step1Title: "These options are saved in cookies in your browser",
	step1Html: "<input type='hidden' name='markList'></input><br>",
	cancelButton: "Cancel",
	cancelButtonPrompt: "Cancel prompt",
	listViewTemplate: {
		columns: [
			{name: 'Description', field: 'description', title: "Description", type: 'WikiText'},
			{name: 'Option', field: 'option', title: "Option", type: 'String'},
			{name: 'Name', field: 'name', title: "Name", type: 'String'}
			],
		rowClasses: [
			{className: 'lowlight', field: 'lowlight'} 
			]}
};

//
// upload functions
//

if (!bidix.upload) bidix.upload = {};

if (!bidix.upload.messages) bidix.upload.messages = {
	//from saving
	invalidFileError: "The original file '%0' does not appear to be a valid TiddlyWiki",
	backupSaved: "Backup saved",
	backupFailed: "Failed to upload backup file",
	rssSaved: "RSS feed uploaded",
	rssFailed: "Failed to upload RSS feed file",
	emptySaved: "Empty template uploaded",
	emptyFailed: "Failed to upload empty template file",
	mainSaved: "Main TiddlyWiki file uploaded",
	mainFailed: "Failed to upload main TiddlyWiki file. Your changes have not been saved",
	//specific upload
	loadOriginalHttpPostError: "Can't get original file",
	aboutToSaveOnHttpPost: 'About to upload on %0 ...',
	storePhpNotFound: "The store script '%0' was not found."
};

bidix.upload.uploadChanges = function(onlyIfDirty,tiddlers,storeUrl,toFilename,uploadDir,backupDir,username,password)
{
	var callback = function(status,uploadParams,original,url,xhr) {
		if (!status) {
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.loadOriginalHttpPostError);
			return;
		}
		if (bidix.debugMode) 
			alert(original.substr(0,500)+"\n...");
		// Locate the storeArea div's 
		var posDiv = locateStoreArea(original);
		if((posDiv[0] == -1) || (posDiv[1] == -1)) {
			alert(config.messages.invalidFileError.format([localPath]));
			return;
		}
		bidix.upload.uploadRss(uploadParams,original,posDiv);
	};
	
	if(onlyIfDirty && !store.isDirty())
		return;
	clearMessage();
	// save on localdisk ?
	if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) == "file") {
		var path = document.location.toString();
		var localPath = getLocalPath(path);
		saveChanges();
	}
	// get original
	var uploadParams = new Array(storeUrl,toFilename,uploadDir,backupDir,username,password);
	var originalPath = document.location.toString();
	// If url is a directory : add index.html
	if (originalPath.charAt(originalPath.length-1) == "/")
		originalPath = originalPath + "index.html";
	var dest = config.macros.upload.destFile(storeUrl,toFilename,uploadDir);
	var log = new bidix.UploadLog();
	log.startUpload(storeUrl, dest, uploadDir,  backupDir);
	displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.aboutToSaveOnHttpPost.format([dest]));
	if (bidix.debugMode) 
		alert("about to execute Http - GET on "+originalPath);
	var r = doHttp("GET",originalPath,null,null,username,password,callback,uploadParams,null);
	if (typeof r == "string")
		displayMessage(r);
	return r;
};

bidix.upload.uploadRss = function(uploadParams,original,posDiv) 
{
	var callback = function(status,params,responseText,url,xhr) {
		if(status) {
			var destfile = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("destfile:")+9,responseText.indexOf("\n", responseText.indexOf("destfile:")));
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.rssSaved,bidix.dirname(url)+'/'+destfile);
			bidix.upload.uploadMain(params[0],params[1],params[2]);
		} else {
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.rssFailed);			
		}
	};
	// do uploadRss
	if(config.options.chkGenerateAnRssFeed) {
		var rssPath = uploadParams[1].substr(0,uploadParams[1].lastIndexOf(".")) + ".xml";
		var rssUploadParams = new Array(uploadParams[0],rssPath,uploadParams[2],'',uploadParams[4],uploadParams[5]);
		var rssString = generateRss();
		// no UnicodeToUTF8 conversion needed when location is "file" !!!
		if (document.location.toString().substr(0,4) != "file")
			rssString = convertUnicodeToUTF8(rssString);	
		bidix.upload.httpUpload(rssUploadParams,rssString,callback,Array(uploadParams,original,posDiv));
	} else {
		bidix.upload.uploadMain(uploadParams,original,posDiv);
	}
};

bidix.upload.uploadMain = function(uploadParams,original,posDiv) 
{
	var callback = function(status,params,responseText,url,xhr) {
		var log = new bidix.UploadLog();
		if(status) {
			// if backupDir specified
			if ((params[3]) && (responseText.indexOf("backupfile:") > -1))  {
				var backupfile = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("backupfile:")+11,responseText.indexOf("\n", responseText.indexOf("backupfile:")));
				displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.backupSaved,bidix.dirname(url)+'/'+backupfile);
			}
			var destfile = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("destfile:")+9,responseText.indexOf("\n", responseText.indexOf("destfile:")));
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.mainSaved,bidix.dirname(url)+'/'+destfile);
			store.setDirty(false);
			log.endUpload("ok");
		} else {
			alert(bidix.upload.messages.mainFailed);
			displayMessage(bidix.upload.messages.mainFailed);
			log.endUpload("failed");			
		}
	};
	// do uploadMain
	var revised = bidix.upload.updateOriginal(original,posDiv);
	bidix.upload.httpUpload(uploadParams,revised,callback,uploadParams);
};

bidix.upload.httpUpload = function(uploadParams,data,callback,params)
{
	var localCallback = function(status,params,responseText,url,xhr) {
		url = (url.indexOf("nocache=") < 0 ? url : url.substring(0,url.indexOf("nocache=")-1));
		if (xhr.status == 404)
			alert(bidix.upload.messages.storePhpNotFound.format([url]));
		if ((bidix.debugMode) || (responseText.indexOf("Debug mode") >= 0 )) {
			alert(responseText);
			if (responseText.indexOf("Debug mode") >= 0 )
				responseText = responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf("\n\n")+2);
		} else if (responseText.charAt(0) != '0') 
			alert(responseText);
		if (responseText.charAt(0) != '0')
			status = null;
		callback(status,params,responseText,url,xhr);
	};
	// do httpUpload
	var boundary = "---------------------------"+"AaB03x";	
	var uploadFormName = "UploadPlugin";
	// compose headers data
	var sheader = "";
	sheader += "--" + boundary + "\r\nContent-disposition: form-data; name=\"";
	sheader += uploadFormName +"\"\r\n\r\n";
	sheader += "backupDir="+uploadParams[3] +
				";user=" + uploadParams[4] +
				";password=" + uploadParams[5] +
				";uploaddir=" + uploadParams[2];
	if (bidix.debugMode)
		sheader += ";debug=1";
	sheader += ";;\r\n"; 
	sheader += "\r\n" + "--" + boundary + "\r\n";
	sheader += "Content-disposition: form-data; name=\"userfile\"; filename=\""+uploadParams[1]+"\"\r\n";
	sheader += "Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8" + "\r\n";
	sheader += "Content-Length: " + data.length + "\r\n\r\n";
	// compose trailer data
	var strailer = new String();
	strailer = "\r\n--" + boundary + "--\r\n";
	data = sheader + data + strailer;
	if (bidix.debugMode) alert("about to execute Http - POST on "+uploadParams[0]+"\n with \n"+data.substr(0,500)+ " ... ");
	var r = doHttp("POST",uploadParams[0],data,"multipart/form-data; ;charset=UTF-8; boundary="+boundary,uploadParams[4],uploadParams[5],localCallback,params,null);
	if (typeof r == "string")
		displayMessage(r);
	return r;
};

// same as Saving's updateOriginal but without convertUnicodeToUTF8 calls
bidix.upload.updateOriginal = function(original, posDiv)
{
	if (!posDiv)
		posDiv = locateStoreArea(original);
	if((posDiv[0] == -1) || (posDiv[1] == -1)) {
		alert(config.messages.invalidFileError.format([localPath]));
		return;
	}
	var revised = original.substr(0,posDiv[0] + startSaveArea.length) + "\n" +
				store.allTiddlersAsHtml() + "\n" +
				original.substr(posDiv[1]);
	var newSiteTitle = getPageTitle().htmlEncode();
	revised = revised.replaceChunk("<title"+">","</title"+">"," " + newSiteTitle + " ");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"PRE-HEAD","MarkupPreHead");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"POST-HEAD","MarkupPostHead");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"PRE-BODY","MarkupPreBody");
	revised = updateMarkupBlock(revised,"POST-SCRIPT","MarkupPostBody");
	return revised;
};

//
// UploadLog
// 
// config.options.chkUploadLog :
//		false : no logging
//		true : logging
// config.options.txtUploadLogMaxLine :
//		-1 : no limit
//      0 :  no Log lines but UploadLog is still in place
//		n :  the last n lines are only kept
//		NaN : no limit (-1)

bidix.UploadLog = function() {
	if (!config.options.chkUploadLog) 
		return; // this.tiddler = null
	this.tiddler = store.getTiddler("UploadLog");
	if (!this.tiddler) {
		this.tiddler = new Tiddler();
		this.tiddler.title = "UploadLog";
		this.tiddler.text = "| !date | !user | !location | !storeUrl | !uploadDir | !toFilename | !backupdir | !origin |";
		this.tiddler.created = new Date();
		this.tiddler.modifier = config.options.txtUserName;
		this.tiddler.modified = new Date();
		store.addTiddler(this.tiddler);
	}
	return this;
};

bidix.UploadLog.prototype.addText = function(text) {
	if (!this.tiddler)
		return;
	// retrieve maxLine when we need it
	var maxLine = parseInt(config.options.txtUploadLogMaxLine,10);
	if (isNaN(maxLine))
		maxLine = -1;
	// add text
	if (maxLine != 0) 
		this.tiddler.text = this.tiddler.text + text;
	// Trunck to maxLine
	if (maxLine >= 0) {
		var textArray = this.tiddler.text.split('\n');
		if (textArray.length > maxLine + 1)
			textArray.splice(1,textArray.length-1-maxLine);
			this.tiddler.text = textArray.join('\n');		
	}
	// update tiddler fields
	this.tiddler.modifier = config.options.txtUserName;
	this.tiddler.modified = new Date();
	store.addTiddler(this.tiddler);
	// refresh and notifiy for immediate update
	story.refreshTiddler(this.tiddler.title);
	store.notify(this.tiddler.title, true);
};

bidix.UploadLog.prototype.startUpload = function(storeUrl, toFilename, uploadDir,  backupDir) {
	if (!this.tiddler)
		return;
	var now = new Date();
	var text = "\n| ";
	var filename = bidix.basename(document.location.toString());
	if (!filename) filename = '/';
	text += now.formatString("0DD/0MM/YYYY 0hh:0mm:0ss") +" | ";
	text += config.options.txtUserName + " | ";
	text += "[["+filename+"|"+location + "]] |";
	text += " [[" + bidix.basename(storeUrl) + "|" + storeUrl + "]] | ";
	text += uploadDir + " | ";
	text += "[[" + bidix.basename(toFilename) + " | " +toFilename + "]] | ";
	text += backupDir + " |";
	this.addText(text);
};

bidix.UploadLog.prototype.endUpload = function(status) {
	if (!this.tiddler)
		return;
	this.addText(" "+status+" |");
};

//
// Utilities
// 

bidix.checkPlugin = function(plugin, major, minor, revision) {
	var ext = version.extensions[plugin];
	if (!
		(ext  && 
			((ext.major > major) || 
			((ext.major == major) && (ext.minor > minor))  ||
			((ext.major == major) && (ext.minor == minor) && (ext.revision >= revision))))) {
			// write error in PluginManager
			if (pluginInfo)
				pluginInfo.log.push("Requires " + plugin + " " + major + "." + minor + "." + revision);
			eval(plugin); // generate an error : "Error: ReferenceError: xxxx is not defined"
	}
};

bidix.dirname = function(filePath) {
	if (!filePath) 
		return;
	var lastpos;
	if ((lastpos = filePath.lastIndexOf("/")) != -1) {
		return filePath.substring(0, lastpos);
	} else {
		return filePath.substring(0, filePath.lastIndexOf("\\"));
	}
};

bidix.basename = function(filePath) {
	if (!filePath) 
		return;
	var lastpos;
	if ((lastpos = filePath.lastIndexOf("#")) != -1) 
		filePath = filePath.substring(0, lastpos);
	if ((lastpos = filePath.lastIndexOf("/")) != -1) {
		return filePath.substring(lastpos + 1);
	} else
		return filePath.substring(filePath.lastIndexOf("\\")+1);
};

bidix.initOption = function(name,value) {
	if (!config.options[name])
		config.options[name] = value;
};

//
// Initializations
//

// require PasswordOptionPlugin 1.0.1 or better
bidix.checkPlugin("PasswordOptionPlugin", 1, 0, 1);

// styleSheet
setStylesheet('.txtUploadStoreUrl, .txtUploadBackupDir, .txtUploadDir {width: 22em;}',"uploadPluginStyles");

//optionsDesc
merge(config.optionsDesc,{
	txtUploadStoreUrl: "Url of the UploadService script (default: store.php)",
	txtUploadFilename: "Filename of the uploaded file (default: in index.html)",
	txtUploadDir: "Relative Directory where to store the file (default: . (downloadService directory))",
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A Los Angeles clinic says it will soon help couples select both gender and physical traits in a baby when they undergo a form of fertility treatment. The clinic, Fertility Institutes, says it has received "half a dozen" requests for the service, which is based on a procedure called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD.

While PGD has long been used for the medical purpose of averting life-threatening diseases in children, the science behind it has quietly progressed to the point that it could potentially be used to create designer babies. It isn't clear that Fertility Institutes can yet deliver on its claims of trait selection. But the growth of PGD, unfettered by any state or federal regulations in the U.S., has accelerated genetic knowledge swiftly enough that pre-selecting cosmetic traits in a baby is no longer the stuff of science fiction.

But Fertility Institutes disagrees. "This is cosmetic medicine," says Jeff Steinberg, director of the clinic that is advertising gender and physical trait selection on its Web site. "Others are frightened by the criticism but we have no problems with it."

PGD is a technique whereby a three-day-old embryo, consisting of about six cells, is tested in a lab to see if it carries a particular genetic disease. Embryos free of that disease are implanted in the mother's womb. Introduced in the 1990s, it has allowed thousands of parents to avoid passing on deadly disorders to their children.

In a recent U.S. survey of 999 people who sought genetic counseling, a majority said they supported prenatal genetic tests for the elimination of certain serious diseases. The survey found that 56 percent supported using them to counter blindness and 75 percent for mental retardation.

More provocatively, about 10 percent of respondents said they would want genetic testing for athletic ability, while another 10 percent voted for improved height. Nearly 13 percent backed the approach to select for superior intelligence, according to the survey conducted by researchers at the New York University School of Medicine.

Embryo screening, for example, is sometimes used to create a genetically matched "savior sibling" — a younger sister or brother whose healthy cells can be harvested to treat an older sibling with a serious illness.

Trait selection in babies "is a service," says Dr. Steinberg. "We intend to offer it soon."

Click here to read more from the Wall Street Journal.

By TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press Writer

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A Burlington man who mistakenly paid taxes for years on his neighbor's property can ask for the money back, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A judge should figure out whether Daniel Buckett's neighbor or Racine County is liable, the 2nd District Court of Appeals said in overturning a decision by Racine County Circuit Judge Stephen A. Simanek.

Bucket and Glenn Jante owned adjoining land separated by County Highway A. Racine County moved the highway in the 1960s, bending it slightly north onto Jante's land, according to court documents.

That left two acres of Jante's land next to Buckett's on the south side of the highway. Buckett has paid taxes on it since at least 1981, the documents said.

Then, in 2005, the state Transportation Department started looking into the parcel for another road project. The agency made an offer to Buckett to buy it, then concluded Jante owned the property. The state eventually bought the land from Jante for $63,000.

Buckett, who now knew the land wasn't his, contacted Jante and asked him to reimburse him for the taxes. Jante refused.

He claimed he had paid taxes on the property as well, saying the county had always taxed him for the same 84.38 acres.

Buckett sued. Simanek ruled for Jante, saying Buckett didn't satisfy the legal requirements for a claim.

But the appeals court ruled his claim was valid. It sent the case back to the trial court, telling the court to determine whether Jante and Buckett both paid taxes on the land. If they did, Buckett's fight lies with the county, not Jante, the appeals court said.

Buckett's attorney, Thomas Devine, said he was pleased the appeals court ruled Buckett has a valid claim.

"I do have a right to prove this loss occurred," Devine said.

Jante's attorney, Peter Ludwig, said the county "screwed up." He said he plans to subpoena tax records back to 1980 to prove Jante paid for the land.

He questioned why Buckett never checked on whether he owned the property after the tax bills started showing up.

"It's inconceivable to me," Ludwig said.

A message left at the Racine County attorney's office wasn't immediately returned.

BY CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporter

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich is vowing to expose “the dark side of politics that he witnessed in both the state and national level” in a book due out in October, his publicist announced today.

The publicist, Glenn Selig, said Blagojevich signed the “six-figure book deal” with Phoenix Books, “run by maverick publisher Michael Viner.” The working title is @@The Governor@@.
» Click to enlarge image

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed a six-figure book deal announced today to chronicle his story.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times file)

Hours before the formal announcement of Blagojevich's book deal, one of his chief legislative critics announced a move to bar him from cashing in on the deal if the impeached ex-governor winds up being convicted of federal charges.

“Corrupt Illinois politicians, for example Rod Blagojevich, are looking to cash in by telling their stories after the fact,” Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) said. //“They should not be allowed to benefit from their actions// in any way, most of all financially.”

Franks’ bill would cover any book or movie deals that detail a crime for which the elected official was convicted, and any profits derived from the deal would have to be turned over to the state of Illinois.

Selig described the planned book as a tell-all. The governor, according to a news release, will write about the discussions, the considerations and the factors involved in picking President Obama’ s successor to the U.S. Senate.

“The governor chose to go with a large independent company because he wanted to tell his story without any restrictions over content that might’ve come with a major publishing house,” Selig said in the release. “He simply did not want to accept constraints or conditions on what he could say in this book.”

Selig said Blagojevich won’t “pull any punches” and plans to “reveal information and provide insights that will at times be embarrassing to himself as well as to others.”

“There were some people in high places who didn't want the governor to write this book and worked to try to squash a book deal,” Selig said.

Specific terms of the book deal were not disclosed.
s

 An industry survey shows , or nearly 12 percent, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of last year.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday the percentage of loans at least a month overdue or in foreclosure was up from 10 percent in the July-September quarter and up from about 8 percent a year earlier.

The sharpest increases in loans 90-days past due were in Louisiana, New York, Georgia, Texas and Mississippi, reflecting a spreading recession and massive job losses nationwide.

The report also showed the delinquency rates for fixed-rate mortgages climbed in the fourth quarter, another sign that layoffs are taking a toll on homeowners.

A worker breaks for lunch before cleaning up a foreclosed home in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, where 29 beds were found. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) 
A service of the Associated Press(AP)

Neb. bird seed seller says feeders paying more
 
 
 
 

Associated Press - March 2, 2009 1:45 PM ET 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Bird seed definitely isn't chicken feed these days.

A shortage of the popular nyjer (NIGH-jur) seed is forcing backyard bird feeders to pay about $80 for a 50-pound bag, about $20 more than the retail price in December.

The owner of the Wild Bird Habitat stores in Lincoln and Omaha says the shortage is blamed on a trade issue between the two countries that produce most of the nyjer, India and Ethiopia.

Dave Titterington said India traditionally sets the price for nyjer seed and Ethiopia sells it for a little less. But a 30% crop loss in India reduced supplies, and Ethiopia increased its prices as a result.

Titterington said nyjer seed is always in demand because it attracts popular goldfinches to feeders.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Quote of the Day: "One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be  -- Thomas Bracket Reed 

Subject: Smelling a rat

We've argued that the stimulus bill was a money-wasting scam. But even the Title 15 provision designed to prevent waste turns out to be . . . another scam. This provision creates two new bureaucracies, the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel (RIAP), and the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which we call the RAT Board. 

RIAP will have five members appointed by the President, the very person the board will oversee, so can it really be "independent?"

It gets worse. The panel can accept gifts of services and property, and the RIAP's Executive Director and other staff will be hired outside of normal civil service regulations and salary schedules; all can be paid as much as $143,500.

The RIAP will monitor how stimulus money is spent and submit recommendations to yet another new bureaucracy, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board -- the RAT. 

RAT will have a Chairperson and at least ten IGs -- Inspectors General -- several of whom will be desginated by the President. IGs investigate waste, fraud, and abuse. There's an IG office in nearly every federal agency.
 
IGs are non-partisan appointees by law, but that requirement is not made of the RAT Chairperson's appointment. And no provision describes how the Board's decisions will be made, making it likely the the Chairperson - a political appointee - will wield the power.
 
At best, the RAT Board duplicates the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency created last year. At worst, the RAT undercuts recent reforms protecting IG independence. The RAT can request an IG to either launch or cease an investigation. The IG can reject the request, but must file reports explaining why. Self-interest would impel IG's to follow the wishes of the RAT Board.

This means that the political appointees to the RIAP and the RAT could serve as an office of Political Inquisition, supporting the use of stimulus funds by politically favored groups, while targeting the use of funds by political opponents. Indeed, if Bush was still in power, many would expect exactly that outcome. 
 
The RIAP and RAT provision was snuck into the scam-stimulus bill at the last minute. According to Byron York, one Democratic Senator said the RAT Board was included in the Stimulus bill because the Obama Administration wanted it. And Sen. Charles Grassley, who was in the House-Senate Conference Committee that produced the final version of the bill, was unaware of it until the day of the vote and didn't even have a chance to voice his objection.

No wonder President Obama wanted to rush the scam-stimulus bill to a vote before anyone could read it, in spite of his promise to sign no bill that hadn't been posted on the Internet for at least five days. 

The "Read the Bills Act" would have exposed the RAT in the scam-stimulus bill. 

Use our quick and easy Educate the Powerful System to tell Congress to pass DownsizeDC.org's "Read the Bills Act." 

Use your personal comments to point to the secret creation of RIAP and RAT in Title 15 of H.R. 1 as another reason why we need the "Read the Bills Act." Mention the comment by Senator Grassley that he didn't even know about this provision until it was time to vote.

Spread this message to your friends, and Digg it on our blog.

Please also add your website or blog to the Read the Bills Act Coalition. We'll return the favor by linking to your page on our blog, and by mentioning it in a Dispatch like this. You can join here.

This week we welcome two new members to the Coalition

Declining Defense
Obama's budget does cut one federal department.

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For all of his lavish new spending plans, President Obama is making one major exception: defense. His fiscal 2010 budget telegraphs that Pentagon spending is going to be under pressure in the years going forward.

The White House proposes to spend $533.7 billion on the Pentagon, a 4% increase over 2009. Include spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, which would be another $130 billion (or a total of $664 billion), and overall defense spending would be around 4.2% of GDP, the same as 2007.

However, that 4% funding increase for the Pentagon trails the 6.7% overall rise in the 2010 budget -- and defense received almost nothing extra in the recent stimulus bill. The Joint Chiefs requested $584 billion for 2010 and have suggested a spending floor of 4% of GDP. Both pleas fell on deaf ears. The White House budget puts baseline defense spending at 3.7% of GDP, not including Iraq and Afghanistan. The budget summary pleads "scarce resources" for the defense shortfall, which is preposterous given the domestic spending blowout.

More ominously, Mr. Obama's budget has overall defense spending falling sharply starting in future years -- to $614 billion in 2011, and staying more or less flat for a half decade. This means that relative both to the economy and especially to domestic priorities, defense spending is earmarked to decline. Some of this assumes less spending on Iraq, which is realistic, but it also has to take account of Mr. Obama's surge in Afghanistan. That war won't be cheap either.

The danger is that Mr. Obama may be signaling a return to the defense mistakes of the 1990s. Bill Clinton slashed defense spending to 3% of GDP in 2000, from 4.8% in 1992. We learned on 9/11 that 3% isn't nearly enough to maintain our commitments and fight a war on terror -- and President Bush spent his two terms getting back to more realistic outlays for a global superpower.

American defense needs are, if anything, even more daunting today. Given challenges in the Mideast and new dangers from Iran, an erratic Russia, a rising China, and potential threats in outer space and cyberspace, the U.S. should be in the midst of a concerted military modernization. Mr. Obama's budget isn't adequate to meet those challenges.

That means Secretary of Defense Robert Gates faces some hard choices when he finishes his strategic review this spring. An early glimpse will come soon when the Pentagon must decide whether to continue to purchase more Lockheed F-22 Raptors. The Air Force is set to buy 183 of the next generation fighters, though it wanted 750, which would be enough to give the U.S. air supremacy over battlefields over the next three decades. Now the fighter may be prematurely mothballed.

Weapons programs, such as missile defense or the Army's Future Combat Systems, are also in danger. Others have been ridiculously delayed. The Air Force flies refueling tankers from the Eisenhower era. Mr. Obama's own 30-something Marine One helicopter is prone to break down and technologically out of date.

The Pentagon shouldn't get a blank check, though much of its procurement waste results from the demands made by Congress. Mr. Gates has also rightly focused on the immediate priority of irregular warfare and counterinsurgency. But history also teaches that a nation that downplays potential threats -- such as from China in outer space -- is likely to find itself ill-prepared when they arrive.

The U.S. ability to project power abroad has been crucial to maintaining a relatively peaceful world, but we have been living off the fruits of our Cold War investments for too long. We can't afford another lost defense decade.

Please add your comments to the Opinion

Gov't provides details, sets standards for

Gov't provides details, sets standards for housing plan aimed at helping 9 million borrowers

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration kicked off a new program Wednesday that's designed to help up to 9 million borrowers stay in their homes through refinanced mortgages or loans that are modified to lower monthly payments.

Borrowers, however, are being advised to be patient in their efforts to get help because mortgage companies are likely to be flooded with calls.

Government officials, launching the @@"Making Home Affordable"@@ program also acknowledge that the initiatives are only a partial fix for a sweeping problem that has helped plunge the U.S. economy into the worst recession in decades. In fact, tens of thousands of homeowners in some of the most battered real estate markets - concentrated in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona - @@won't be eligible for the two programs@@.

"It's not intended to prevent every foreclosure or to help every homeowner," a senior Treasury Department official told reporters. "It's @@really targeted at responsible homeowners@@."

There was also skepticism that banks would be willing to participate.

"I've just seen so many of the programs not work," said Pava Leyrer, president of Heritage National Mortgage in Randville, Mich. "It gets borrowers hopes up. They call and call for these programs and we can't get anybody to do them."

The Obama administration's program has two parts: one to work with lenders to @@modify the loan terms for up to 4 million homeowner, the second to refinance up to 5 million homeowners into more affordable fixed-rate loans@@.

For the modification program, borrowers who are eligible will have to provide their most recent tax return and two pay stubs, as well as an "affidavit of financial hardship" to qualify for the loan modification program, which runs through 2012.

Borrowers are only allowed to have their loans modified once, and the program only applies for loans made on Jan. 1 2009, or earlier. Mortgages for single-family properties that are worth more than $729,750 are excluded.

Lenders could reduce a borrower's interest rate to as low as @@2 percent for five years. Rates would then rise to about 5 percent until the mortgage is repaid@@.

If the plan works as intended, it could be a big plus for borrowers like Nick Kavalary, a network cable installer who lives outside Milwaukee.

Kavalary, 42, has been struggling with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to get a loan modification. He was finally approved for one this year, but it only cuts his interest rate to about 9.8 percent from 10.75 percent. Even at the lower rate, he said, making the payment is nearly impossible.

"If I can't pick up a second job, I'm going to lose this house," he said. "With the job market being the way it is, nobody's hiring nobody."

For the refinance program, @@only homeowners whose loans are held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac@@ are eligible and have until June 2010 to apply.

Consumers should contact their @@loan servicer@@ - the company that sends out their monthly bill - to find out if their mortgages are held by Fannie or Freddie. The two mortgage finance companies own or guarantee almost 31 million home loans - more than half of all U.S home mortgages.

Many mortgage brokers, however, are critical. They argue the fees imposed by Fannie and Freddie over the past year make it difficult for borrowers to afford to refinance. The two companies, which are now government controlled, have yet to detail how they will implement the plan, or whether any fees will be rolled back.

Meanwhile, action to put in place another part of Obama's housing plan is expected soon on Capitol Hill.

House Democrats agreed Tuesday to narrow proposed legislation that gives bankruptcy judges the power to change the terms of mortgage loans for debt-strapped borrowers.

In the latest version of the bill, judges would have to consider whether a homeowner had been offered a reasonable deal by the bank to rework his or her home loan before seeking help in bankruptcy court. Borrowers also would have a responsibility to prove that they tried to modify their mortgages.

A full vote in the House could come as early as Thursday.

---

On the Net:

http://www.FinancialStability.gov .

Can age?
That's the issue raised by a new study, and it could unleash a fierce debate over whether a teen's music player is potentially risky and -- if so -- what should or can be done about it.

In an unusual piece of research, investigators at the University of Pittsburgh graded the sexual aggressiveness of lyrics, using songs by popular artists on the US Billboard chart.

The lyrics were graded from the least to the most sexually degrading.

They then asked 711 students aged 15 to 16 at three local high schools about their music preferences and their sexual behaviour.

Overall, 31 percent of the teens had had intercourse.

But the rate was only 20.6 percent among those who had been least exposed to sexually degrading lyrics but 44.6 percent among those highly exposed to the most degrading lyrics.

The study's lead author, Brian Primack, said music by itself was not the direct spark for sex but helped mould perception and was thus "likely to be a factor" in sexual development.

"These lyrics frequently portray aggressive males subduing submissive females, which may lead adolescents to incorporate this 'script' for sexual experience into their world view," he told AFP.

The study took social factors, educational attainment and ethnicity into account.

"Non-degrading" lyrics described sex in a non-specific way and as a mutually consensual act, while "degrading" lyrics described sexual acts as a purely physical, graphic and dominant act.

"Lyrics describing degrading sex tend to portray sex as expected, direct and uncomplicated," said the paper, which appeared last week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"Such descriptions may offer scripts that adolescents feel compelled to play out, whether they are cast in the role of either the female or the male partner."

Steven Martino, author of a study published in 2000 that also made the same association between music and sexual behaviour, said the findings were a wakeup call.

"The need [is] for parents to be aware so that they can place limits and criticise and understand what their children are listening to," said Martino, a behavioural scientist in Pittsburgh with the Rand Corporation.

More than 750,000 American teenagers become pregnant each year, giving the United States one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in the rich world, according to figures quoted in the study. Nearly a quarter of all female teenagers in the United States have a sexually-transmitted disease.

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, lyrics by Prince on his album "Purple Rain" prompted wives of senior politicians in Washington, led by Tipper Gore, to set up the Parents Music Resource Center.

They pushed for the music industry to develop guidelines and a rating system for lyrics, similar to the ratings for movies. The system was criticised by many as unworkable and counter-productive, making it more daring for teens to buy songs they deemed taboo.

"Government needs to help parents to regulate the industry," said Helen Ward, president of the Kids First Parents Association of Canada.

Today's technology means it is "physically impossible" for parents to monitor what their children listened to or watched on their MP3, she said.

But Raymond MacDonald, a specialist in music psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University, described it as "a perennial debate that cropped up with artists like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the Sex Pistols and Elvis Presley before that."

"Do we really need a solution to the problem?", he asked.

MacDonald said that even if every generation rehashes the discussion differently, there's an important difference today: age lines have blurred and now everyone is listening to everything.

"Maybe we should do a study to see if the music has as a bad influence on grandparents," he said wryly.

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Falls police say woman put up racist sign

 NIAGARA FALLS—Two days after a man was sentenced to probation and community service for putting up a sign as a “joke” in a public works garage that said “whites only” on a drinking fountain, city police were called to a home in the 600 block of 25th Street on Sunday to investigate another racially charged sign. 

This one was clearly no joke. 

No charges were filed Sunday, but police told the woman she must take down the handwritten sign on a fence on her property saying, “I rent three bedrooms [at her address to] white people Niagara Falls.” 

The 53-year-old woman told police she put up the sign after someone tried to break into her house and added, @@“I can do what I want. I live in America,”@@ according to a police report. 

Police said they received complaints and she must take the sign down. An officer at the scene said the woman agreed to take down the sign under protest. The officer said the woman already had seven more signs she was planning to hang up.

Ben Hughes abruptly resigned as city administrator on Feb. 16 after a mayoral scandal, and stayed silent about why.

On Wednesday, he finally returned calls and, under the terms of his resignation agreement with the city, he declined to talk about his employment with the city or what led to his resignation.

But in an interview that may require some reading between the lines, Hughes said the next mayor must be ethical and supportive of the city administrator.

“If the next mayor should decide to compromise the values and integrity of the next city administrator in an effort for the mayor to pursue personal or political agendas … then I’m fairly confident the next city administrator will resign,” Hughes said.

When asked about this and other comments, he said he was speaking generally about the position of city administrator. He said he was not referring to Mayor Friedel at all, but would not comment on whether his remarks were about former Mayor Gary Becker.

Becker’s attorney, Pat Cafferty, said Wednesday Becker is in treatment in Philadelphia and cannot be reached at this time to respond.

Becker was arrested Jan. 13 on multiple felony counts including child enticement and attempted sexual assault of a child.

After Becker’s arrest Hughes stepped up at City Hall. But Hughes’ career had already been blemished, with two state complaints alleging discrimination against him.

Sandra Tingle, Becker’s administrative assistant, alleged sexual harassment against Hughes and misconduct against Becker. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Equal Rights Division dismissed it, but it’s going to a hearing.

Also, City Health Administrator Janelle Grammer alleged Hughes discriminated against her for using medical leave and filed a complaint with the state.

Hughes said he will continue working to defend himself against the complaints.

“It is truly sad that today’s society even allows ridiculous false lawsuits like that to be filed,” he said.

He also added: “Without making any direct comment to the city of Racine, I would like to make a general statement. When mayors feel the need to interfere with ethical human resource management almost always they cause complications and undermine the effectiveness of the city administrator.” He didn’t say what exactly he was referring to.

He sincerely hopes the next mayor will support a city administrator position, he said, but stressed it would only work if the mayor supports the administrator’s decisions.

“The only way that relationship will be successful and efficient is if the mayor is ethically and morally prepared to support the next city administrator, particularly when it comes to human resources issues,” Hughes said.

Friedel said he knows the relationship between the mayor and city administrator is important and for that reason, he said he would never move forward in hiring someone without consent from the next mayor.

Hughes said a new city administrator is important, but still declined to comment on why he resigned or if he was asked to resign.

All he said was: “There are times mayors do such damage to city administrators that even after that mayor leaves office, .”

Even though Hughes is no longer at City Hall he said he still owns his house in the City of Racine and plans to stay in town.

Also, earlier in February he became engaged to Rachel Westergren, a community organizer for Neighborhood Housing Services. Hughes said they were dating for about a year and plan to get married in late summer or fall.

Hullo

WASHINGTON (CNN) — On the day that the Obama administration begins implementing a new program to fight home foreclosures, a new national poll suggests that most Americans think.

Sixty-four percent of those questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday feel the Obama administration program is unfair to those who pay their mortgages on time. Only 28 percent say that the president's $75 billion plan is fair. More details on the program, which is aimed at helping up to nine million borrowers stay in their homes using refinanced mortgages or modified loans, were released Wednesday.

Americans may not like the plan — but that doesn’t mean they think it’s a bad idea. While nearly two-thirds think the plan is unfair to those who follow the rules, 57 percent say they approve of the package, and 55 percent believe the plan will stabilize home prices.

"Americans don't like to see other people get special treatment, particularly when it comes to money, but they don't like to see others suffer either," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "And unlike federal assistance to auto companies and banks, the Obama mortgage plan appears to benefit individual Americans, typically a more popular option in polls."

The poll also indicates that lenders are getting the lion’s share of the blame for the mortgage mess: 62 percent of those question blame them for the current crisis, to 25 percent who blame borrowers.

The Quinnipiac University poll of 2,573 people was conducted by telephone February 25-March 2, and has a sampling error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.

Filed under: President Obama

533 Comments | Permalink

Kathie Clayton March 4th, 2009 6:29 pm ET

Is it fair??? No, it's not fair — but it's the RIGHT thing to do. Fairness is not the issue here. This is about stabilizing the economy which will benefit all of us. I know a few folks who are in foreclosure, and they are responsible, intelligent people. They didn't live beyond their means and didn't go into their mortgages blindly. Regardless, they are still experiencing serious economic issues that may result in foreclosure.

So personally, I am happy to have my tax $$ go to support others who are in need. Were some of these mortgage holders overambitious, yes, they probably were? Did some of them utilize poor judgment — yep, some of then probably did? But it is not my place to judge the misfortune of others — and blame certainly doesn't help. There an old saying "There but for the grace of God goes I". Experience has shown me that it's easy to complain, blame and be self-righteous when things are going well for me — but it's hurtful. Let's try a little forgiveness and support for folks that are suffering — you never know, you may need that same support yourself some day!

janelle March 4th, 2009 6:29 pm ET

No, it's not fair. There is no allowance for people who were responsible to refinance our homes that are not under water and lower our payments. We're all in the same boat. All of our home values are down, yet we have to keep making payments and can't refinance because we're not underwater?

Secondly, this bailout won't solve the housing problems because it will falsely stabalize the market. It's this false home values that got us here in the first place. The idea that not only should everyone own a home even if they can't afford it, but they should go out and get huge 300K and 400K homes they can't afford artifically raised home values.

Now, not only do we have to pay for our own homes, we have to pay for the homes of those who have lived way beyond their means too, in houses they never should have had and that should never have been bought at the prices they bought them at in the first place.

Ritas March 4th, 2009 6:28 pm ET

It was probably really unfair to sellers to take advantage of everyone else and sell their property at the height of the real estate market too causing a huge bubble so everyone is to blame in this.

carrotroot March 4th, 2009 6:27 pm ET

The people who bought homes they knew they couldn't afford them have long lost their homes.

The goal now is prevent people who CAN pay for their homes from walking away from them when the cost of ownership is more than the worth of the house.

I may seem unfair, but it is a necessary step to prevent further losses in the housing market.

FrankyJ March 4th, 2009 6:27 pm ET

Help stop the forclosures..Help our neighbors…So that home owners home values stop dropping……We all Win!!!! And our economy gets back on track.

robert March 4th, 2009 6:25 pm ET

why is everyone crying Bush and His GOP buddies didnt help no one. al least Obama is doing something for Americans so stop crying nothing gets solved fast give this man a little time.

Mike Ho March 4th, 2009 6:24 pm ET

Rob responsible Petes and pay reckless Pauls

Some guys just won't let up in their fight against earmarks. Sen. John McCain and Russ Feingold have teamed up - again - to curb what they call wasteful pet projects even as Congress continues to churn them out.

Their latest solution: the presidential line item veto. The proposal would give the president the ability to strike individual spending items from a bill before signing it. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the line item veto as unconstitutional in 1998, saying Congress was not authorized to give the president that power.

But McCain and Feingold say they have addressed the issue in their legislation by giving Congress the ability to accept or reject each item the president tries to veto. That way, they say, Congress retains control over the process while forcing lawmakers to justify their spending items to their colleagues.

"This bill is about the need to stop wasteful earmarks especially in this time of economic crisis," Feingold said. "And if Congress won't restrain itself, the president should be able to try."

Rep. Paul Ryan, a Janesville Republican, is pushing a similar proposal in the House.

"Our goal is to embarrass the pork out of Washington," Ryan said Wednesday. "And by giving the president and the Congress this tool, we can help bring sunshine to this murky process and embarrass pork-barrel spending out of these packages."

The renewed push for the line-item veto comes as Congress is considering a $410 billion spending bill for the 2009 budget year that includes roughly $7.7 billion worth of earmarks, according to an analysis by the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

President Barack Obama is supportive of a line-item veto but his record is mixed when it comes to earmarks. Obama has recently boasted that the $787 billion economic stimulus package enacted last month included no earmarks. But he has not insisted that the current spending bill being considered be free of earmarks as well. The bill cleared the House last week and the Senate is likely to pass it before the week is out.

In his first three years in the Senate, Obama sought millions of dollars worth of earmarks before vowing to no longer seek funding for these pet projects while campaigning for president in 2007.

Attempts to curb earmarks face tough hurdles in Congress, where members often argue that they are better equipped to know the needs of the areas they represent than federal bureaucrats in Washington.

Recently, congressional leaders reacted icily to comments by a top White House aide that Obama would change the rules for future spending bills.

"I don't think the White House has the ability to tell us what to do," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Tuesday.